Bamboo is intricately tied to Philippine culture. It’s used to make bahay kubos and furniture, and even figures in the story of Malakas and Maganda, the first man and woman. Now, several groups are advocating for its use as building material. One of these is 2024 Newsmaker of the Year Kawayan Collective Agriculture Cooperative, whose recent projects include the benches in the Philippine Pavilion at the Frankfurt Bookfair and the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI).

Architect Ray Villanueva and his wife, social entrepreneur Amy Villanueva initially started the company as a sole proprietorship before transitioning to a cooperative. “We felt it was the best way to establish, grow, and root the company in the community and to have everyone take ownership and share in the profits,” he said.

They are located in Barangay Maayong Tubig in the municipality of Dauin, about 30 minutes south of Dumaguete. The community has a great supply of bamboo, mostly established from a previous bamboo business that had shut down before Kawayan Collective opened. Aside from having planted bamboo 10-15 years ago, there was also an established culture of working with bamboo for export. From seven people in 2018, Kawayan Collective now works with 40. “All members and owners of the company,” Villanueva said. “We don't have a plantation. We only work with the farmers that have planted bamboo already. Backyard bamboo, rather than plantation bamboo.”

They use two species, Bambusa blumeana or kawayan tinik, and Dendrocalamus asper or giant bamboo. Culms can be considered construction grade at three years old. “We've always included our farmers and cutters and our group. We don't have any formal contract with them; we depend on them for our supply.”

Kawayan Collective’s primary launch partner was BASE Bamboo, an organization that promotes the use of treated bamboo for building material, and who I’ve written about before. BASE Bahay trained them, and they also follow international standards for treatment and grading. “That was a great launch partner to have because they needed 100 poles per house and they were trying to build thousands of houses,” Villanueva said. “After the first year of supplying just them and refining the process, we opened our doors for other projects. We said yes to everything because we wanted to survive as a business. We did high end homes and small structures, waiting sheds and tiny houses.”

Though they had to close their doors during the pandemic, they used that time to develop their engineered bamboo products, which included handmade bamboo panels that look very refined. “It’s a byproduct that we think is beautiful. It's made by Filipino hands and it's definitely worth celebrating.”

Their products have even represented the Philippines on the global stage. They worked with product designer Stanley Ruiz on the benches of the Philippine Pavilion of the Frankfurt Bookfair, where the Philippines was guest of honor. “They ordered 24 benches, each one handmade and by our team of 40 people,” Villanueva said. “I think that's the culmination of where we are today. We want to work with as many architects and designers and builders to take bamboo to the next level.”

They also recently launched a waiting shed in Laoag in partnership with FPRDI. “We have an ongoing incubatee relationship with them. We piloted their joining system, I think, four years ago… It’s a steel joint that was invented by FPRDI to make joinery easier.”

Kawayan Collective’s goals are simple: “Our mission is better homes for all Filipinos and our vision to get there is to elevate bamboo. It's a durable, resilient, beautiful material.”

This isn’t easy. Villanueva cites some things needed to make this happen, such as ample supply, public education, skills training, and integrating bamboo into local building codes.

But Kawayan Collective is willing to take on the challenge. Part of this involves expanding nationwide to take advantage of bamboo’s ubiquitousness in the country. “We have three locations now. Our goal is to find partners—we want to have at least 10 in the next five years—in different areas where bamboo could play a role in replacing more concrete and steel because the end goal is to make bamboo choice material for architects and designers so that we don't have to use materials that degrade, that are extractive, and that open up all these new ways for the rivers to flood. We're trying to make bamboo just more commonplace,” Villanueva said. “We're trying to sell bamboo back to Filipinos."