James Wolf, an American bamboo product designer and his bamboo helicopter toy made in Vietnam
James Wolf would never have imagined that he’d spend his life playing with bamboo.
But after helping design the famous bamboo structures of Allez Boo Restaurant and Bar in Ho Chi Minh City and Mui Ne’s Bamboo Village Resort, it’s no surprise. He even built a home for himself out of bamboo.
Wolf studied Industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and moved to Japan to study Japanese traditional woodworking and furniture making from a master wood worker in Tokyo when he was only 22.
He became interested in bamboo as an alternative to hardwood in 1995 when he came to Vietnam to engineer the production of hardwood made from bamboo.
Wolf became fascinated by the beauty as well as the practical value of bamboo use in Vietnam. For 16 years, he has been designing and exporting bamboo products like toys and furniture to America and Europe.
“There are close to 2,000 different types of bamboo in the world, and Vietnam has about 200 species,” says Wolf. “Vietnam has some of the best quality bamboo in the world.”
Wolf hopes to make industrial products from bamboo that can replace more environmentally-destructive forms of flooring, sheet goods like plywood, and timber for furniture.
Wolf also works as an expert at Spin, a project funded by the United Nations that is helping 500 companies in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia design and brand their handicraft products in an sustainable way. Wolf has been helping these companies design safe and efficient energy systems while mapping out sustainability plans.
For Wolf, bamboo is one of the most sustainable materials. He says the bamboo plant makes new poles every year compared to a wood tree that takes 20 to 40 years and can only be cut once.
“A healthy bamboo plant can provide 6 to 10 mature poles every year, plus bamboo has many other environmental benefits,” he said.