BUILDING ALPAS

It all starts with bamboo…

Part of being sustainable is in our choice of building material. Bamboo grows abundantly here in the Philippines, yet we noticed most houses nowadays, even in our small town are built out of concrete. In fact, it was a challenge to find bamboo carpenters because people simply don't build with bamboo anymore. Building something extraordinary out of bamboo at Alpasis our attempt to show locals that native materials are things of worth, beauty and strength.

Bamboo is an incredibly versatile material: our skilled carpenters have made bamboo pegs out of bamboo slivers that we use to nail our structural supports; bamboo skins are woven for walls; cut into long strips, we have bamboo flooring; the tips of our variety of spiny bamboo make beautiful decorative railings. Every piece and section of bamboo has a purpose.

Nothing goes to waste. Scraps from our flooring were pieced together to make our walls; bamboo shavings are collected in our compost and will be used for kindling; bamboo end pieces and other scraps will be turned into bamboo charcoal to fuel our hearth.

Instead of trucking in loads of cement and buying pre-fabricated materials, we support local craftsmen and choose bamboo, an equally strong but advantageously flexible material to create something unique and beautiful, that connects to nature and reflects its wonderful variety, softness and warmth. We preserve a dying tradition and knowledge that is kept alive by our proud and skilled carpenters who build incredible, labor-intensive furniture, fixtures, and entire buildings with their bare hands (and sometimes…ok most of the time, barefeet!) and most importantly, we use & enhance the abundant raw materials found within our town & province. The Philippines is an incredible country rich in natural resources that are for the most part, no longer used; overlooked and neglected for cheap plastics and other non-sustainable goods that are not even manufactured in this country.

We honor the people, knowledge, skill, and natural resources that make Alpas.