Elora Hardy designs and builds dreamlike homes and structures in Bali using treated bamboo. ictured here is one of the homes her company Ibuku built in Bali.  Photo courtesy of Ibuku
Elora Hardy designs and builds dreamlike homes and structures in Bali using treated bamboo. ictured here is one of the homes her company Ibuku built in Bali.
Photo courtesy of Ibuku

Elora Hardy, CEO of Ibuku, a Bali (Indonesia) based company that builds sustainable, dreamlike structures almost entirely from bamboo, will speak in Idyllwild. She’ll talk about reimagining and creating living and work spaces that are more in harmony with nature.

Hardy, formerly a fabric designer for Donna Karan and DKNY in New York, read a book that changed her career track and her life. The book, “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, is a manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism. The authors argue that existing “environmental manufacturing” is inadequate to protect the long term health of the planet and that what is needed is designing from the ground up for both eco-safety and cost efficiency.

“Reading the book made me radically want to change my life,” said Hardy. “[McDonough and Braungart] are not just writing about recycling but also about making things that not only don’t compromise the environment, they are good for it.”

At the same time, Hardy’s father John had returned to Bali to pursue his dream of creating an eco-conscious school, the Green School, which opened in 2008. The success of the school created a demand for environmentally friendly homes. Elora, who had grown up in Bali, returned to design bamboo homes and structures and to join her father’s ecological crusade.

Treated bamboo, as Hardy will explain, is strong, beautiful and flexible as a building material. “With its four year growth cycle and carbon sequestration capacity, it is the most environmentally conscientious building material conceivable,” notes Ibuku promotional material.

Hardy’s designs and buildings are dreamlike and durable. In her talk, she will share her belief and working credo that nature can spark sustainable innovation. The buildings her company has created have been described as sustainable, culturally connected and tradition-defying. Bamboo is a relative of grass but is, with salt based treatment, incredibly strong. Ibuku’s philosophy is, “If we can build palaces from grass, then what else is possible?”

Hardy’s talk takes place at the Idyllwild Library Community Room at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 8. It is sponsored by Idyllwild Arts’ “Art in Society” program, is free of charge and open to the public.

For more about Hardy and Ibuku, see www.ibuku.com.