Born in Colombia, Simon Vélez has years of experience in rural architecture, although some of his projects are also urban. He discovered a technique where he injects cement mortar into empty chambers of bamboo, to create a structural element: ‘vegetal steel’.
To date, Vélez has designed and constructed over 200 buildings (not only in bamboo) in Germany, France, USA, Brazil, Mexico, China, Jamaica, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and India. His most notable works are the bamboo pavilion in Expo Hannover (2000) and the Crosswaters Ecolodge in the forests of Nankun Shan Reserve (Guangzhou, China 2003) to name a few.
www.simonvelez.net
