Follow the roofline of an IBUKU building with your eyes and it rarely behaves like a conventional box. Columns branch, ceilings sweep upwards and the surrounding greenery becomes part of the room’s atmosphere. Bamboo helps give the architecture a remarkably expressive vocabulary.

The Bali-based practice is led by Elora Hardy, but the buildings are collaborative achievements. IBUKU describes its team as designers, architects and engineers working with the craft and knowledge needed to turn ambitious forms into usable places.

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The multi-level bamboo form of Sharma Springs rising above the greenery in Bali. Gallery attribution: IBUKU / Green Village.

Sharma Springs above the Ayung valley

One of the best-known examples is Sharma Springs at Green Village, overlooking the Ayung River valley. The property’s own description identifies six levels and a tubular bamboo entrance leading into the main house at the fourth floor.

That entrance is a useful detail to imagine. Instead of arriving at ground level and treating the view as something to find later, the approach brings you directly into the building’s relationship with the valley.

The photograph conveys scale, but look for smaller decisions too: the spacing of supports, the rhythm of railings and the way furniture sits within a curved room.

The knowledge behind bamboo construction

Bamboo requires material selection, suitable treatment, careful detailing and ongoing maintenance. Its appearance alone cannot establish structural performance or resistance to insects. Understanding how the material is used in this project gives the design more substance than treating bamboo as an indestructible natural product.

A bamboo home with curved roofs and open balconies in the IBUKU archive
A bamboo home with curved roofs and open balconies in the IBUKU archive. Gallery attribution: IBUKU / Green Village.

IBUKU’s published material information describes treatment against insect damage. This is precisely why the finished building should not be reduced to a slogan such as “bamboo is as strong as concrete”. A whole structure depends on its connections, geometry, loading and exposure, not a comparison between two raw materials.

These are designed buildings, with specialists responsible for making the architectural idea work. A photograph is inspiration, not a set of construction instructions.

Reading the smaller details

Notice how the natural variation of the poles remains visible. Repetition gives the room order, while small differences keep it from feeling mechanically uniform.

Try choosing one joint or change of direction in an interior photograph and following the connected elements. The building becomes easier to appreciate when you see how the large gesture is made from many smaller decisions.

The phrase “made only from bamboo” also oversimplifies a functioning home. Foundations, services and other components have their own requirements. Bamboo can be the defining material without being the only material present.

Arranging a tour or a stay

Green Village includes homes and accommodation; an appealing exterior does not make every building freely open to visitors. Check the current tour or stay options through the property before travelling there, and confirm which spaces your booking includes.

For another Bali accommodation style, compare the Ubud Village Resort. For a more compact design question, explore WaterNest’s floating-home proposal. The contrast helps reveal what matters most to you: material, setting, scale or the daily experience inside.

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From local materials to a complete design

IBUKU’s account of its design process begins with local material availability, workmanship and building techniques. That is a useful counterpoint to a gallery in which the finished forms seem to flow effortlessly. A curve still has to become a set of pieces that can be selected, connected and built. The studio describes close coordination with local architects and project managers, placing the striking visual idea within a much broader practical process. [1]

Hardy’s biography dates her return from the New York fashion world to 2010, connecting the architecture with a longer history of Balinese craft and her family’s work. That background helps explain why the details matter as much as the roofline. In an interior photograph, follow a railing, a support or a piece of furniture before looking at the whole room again. The building’s character comes from the accumulation of those choices, with individual craft visible inside the larger architectural gesture. [2]