Welcome to bamzoo!
Bamzoo is a play system made entirely out of bamboo:
- Rings that are a delight to handle.
- Strips that can be shaped into curves yet are rigid enough to support many times their own weight.
- Collars and planks engineered with precision for a satisfying fit.
Standing, hanging, rolling, balancing, weaving, bouncing, walking, spinning. Kinetic sculptures that produce a ripple of wonder. Pretty playthings. Macho mobiles.
Our Story
Bamzoo developed through experimentation with bamboo kites and lanterns of China. Light, flexible and strong, these craft works possess a quality of magic.
Over the course of a few years of making bamboo things alongside kids and adults, the initial impulse to tinker has matured into a simple knowledge that beautiful things emerge from bamboo play. Hand skills and creative thinking develop in parallel. Patience and persistence are awarded by discovery. Cooperation with friends, parents, or whoever is at hand forges connection. The ecological wisdom manifest in the material itself, and the story of its interface with human culture are research areas with continuous allure.
Bamzoo is an ongoing adventure. Our studio in Shanghai is a short journey from the bamboo forests of Anji county. Come visit! We are continually exploring new possibilities for linkages, patterns, movement.
Sustainability
We embrace an inquisitive spirit in the face of wild and creative nature. In particular we're asking: what toy designs may be conducive to generating questions.
Inquisitiveness is an attitude that can be developed through play. Questions arise in response to sense experience of things as simple as a bamboo ring. What does the inner surface feel like? How does it appear when turned around? Ideally questions are rewarded with gratifying answers that stimulate more probing.
We are also asking: what is a suitable material for a plaything?
Toys are inherently short term use items: learners move on to new challenges. The material cycle of bamboo has an appropriately short duration. Culms are typically harvested 5-6 years after sprouting. Untreated bamboo will biodegrade within a year or two of being discarded. Playthings typically end up in a landfill, in the atmosphere through incineration, or in the oceans. Once there, are they likely to enhance conditions favorable to life? The answer in the case of bamzoo is a tentative yes.
We're asking ourselves: are our actions likely to help our community to thrive?
The people who make our products possess some of the qualities of the craftworks that surround them: light, because without great material wealth living frugally; flexible because keen to discover new ideas and opportunities; strong for their perseverance and preservation of knowledge inherited from generations of makers. Building and maintaining a close rapport is a basic thing we do.
Our community extends to everyone that has expressed an interest in bamzoo. Send us your feedback! ask a question! There is much to talk about!
