BASE Celebrates a Decade of Success in Enabling Bamboo Construction
28 July 2024, Manila. Base Bahay Foundation, Inc. (BASE), the global leader in Bamboo Construction, marks its 10th year of building resilient bamboo infrastructure for the Philippines and beyond. Central to the BASE milestone celebration is a pledge to use its anniversary resources to build more comfortable, affordable, disaster-resilient, and environment-friendly homes for underserved families – a gesture that supports the organization’s goal at its founding by the HILTI Foundation in July 2014 to help address the growing housing gap and reduce the effect of climate change by using local and sustainable materials.
“Together over the last decade, BASE and the Hilti Foundation have worked to elevate the living standards of every family in the community and enable them to have a sustainable future,” says Maricen Jalandoni, BASE President and Hilti Foundation Asia Liaison. “We can think of no better way to celebrate than to bring sustainable shelter to more families.”
Adds Engr. Luis Felipe Lopez, BASE General Manager: “The 2023 UN-Habitat PH Country Report estimates that the Philippines will be saddled with a 22-million housing backlog by 2040. Together with our network of partners, we are putting our BASE Cement-Bamboo Framework to scale as a holistic solution to the global housing gap, climate change, and socioeconomic challenges.”
“Central to our short-term goals is our work to include Bamboo in the National Structural Code for construction that will then allow us to leverage the abundance of bamboo across the country to build more sustainable, resilient, and affordable housing solutions.”
Across the BASE organization, three key pillars define the work: BASE Innovates where as a leading global authority, BASE works with top local and international universities to develop alternative building technologies and design innovations; BASE Builds under which sustainable, resilient, and affordable solutions are developed to address the global housing crisis while also providing an inclusive better future for all; and BASE Enables which pertain to the building of a robust ecosystem for scalable housing solutions that in turn creates a network of bamboo enterprises that drive industry growth and impact.
BASE Innovates
When the BASE Innovation Center in Makati City was inaugurated in 2021 it paved the way for more international and local research collaboration. Today, as a global competence center, over 5,000 tests run at the Base Innovation Center have provided important data to the publication of over 20 papers in scientific journals and the work BASE continues to carry out in partnership with seven (7) local universities and nine (9) international academic institutions. This has resulted in BASE’s accreditation with RILEM (Réunion Internationale des Laboratoires et Experts des Matériaux, systèmes de construction et ouvrages) this year. RILEM is a global network of laboratories and experts in construction materials, systems, and structures.
The testing and research at the Base Innovation Center also provide critical information that supports ongoing efforts together with the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP) to include bamboo in the National Structural Code of the Philippines (NSCP). With these results, BASE also supports the development of bamboo codes in Nepal and the latest revision of bamboo codes in Colombia.
BASE Enables
The organization’s education outreach in sustainable construction will continue to be key to achieving BASE’s goals. Through the organization’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program under the Bamboo Academy, professional architects and civil engineers earn CPD units that they need for their continued development. To date, Base has conducted 15 online and in-person CPD Programs and trained over 2,000 workers and professional builders.
Just last June, BASE hosted a third in a series of annual bamboo conferences termed “Bamboost” Forum themed Beyond Bamboo: Bridging Green Construction in Codes and Standards”. Bamboost III was a leveled-up event that brought together local and international bamboo experts and partners in sustainable construction who shared their expertise to educate, motivate, and inspire professional builders and bamboo enthusiasts.
Enabling ongoing builds and providing livelihood to communities are six (6) bamboo supply and treatment partners across the Philippines with two more facilities scheduled for completion within the year. Last year, Base established a Quality Management System to improve the services these partners provide and ensure that they meet clients’ needs and demands.
BASE Builds
Supported by all these initiatives, BASE and their partners have built over 2,300 homes in over 20 communities across the Philippines, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Nicaragua, sheltering around 10,500 individuals. In 2019, BASE started the Negros Occidental Impact 2025 in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Philippines, which is its biggest housing project to date.
Beyond housing, BASE has built 14 special structures, which include a children’s home, an office, a weaving center, community centers, and school buildings which are accredited by the Department of Education (DepEd).
In 2023, Base Bahay started the integration of Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) green building certification on its projects. EDGE is a green building certification system and a sustainability platform developed by the International Finance Corporation. This certification program encourages property developers to design and construct more energy and water-efficient buildings using sustainable materials. It also aims to reduce buildings’ carbon footprint and promote resource conservation. Currently, BASE has five EDGE-certified experts.
When it comes to the organization’s environmental impact, BASE has an average of 35,000 tCO2 savings from the houses built using Cement-Bamboo Frame Technology (CBFT).
