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The world is discovering bamboo scaffolding – as Hong Kong phases it out

Skyscrapers clad in bamboo poles have been an iconic part of the city’s landscape, earning the material a place at the Venice Biennale

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The sun is setting on Hong Kong’s bamboo scaffolding just as the rest of the world is waking up to the material’s myriad qualities. Pictured is a building in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, encased in the iconic bamboo poles. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

Published: 6:15am, 20 Jul 2025Updated: 11:00am, 24 Jul 2025

If you visit Venice, Italy, this year and stumble upon a courtyard wrapped in a lattice of bamboo poles, you might think you’ve been transported to the streets of Hong Kong. But it isn’t a mirage – it’s the SAR’s official contribution to the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

The installation stands out for its utilitarian aesthetic. Designed by Hong Kong-based Beau Architects and the Architecture Land Initiative (a Swiss- and Hong Kong-based architectural cooperative), in collaboration with master scaffolder Choi Wing-kei, it wraps around the historic villa on Campo della Tana that hosts Hong Kong’s annual contribution to the biennale, whose art and architecture editions alternate every year.

The scaffolding doubles as benches for talks and other events, but for the most part, it’s the same kind of structure you see on Hong Kong construction sites, assembled from bamboo rods cut and tied on site, now with nylon bands instead of the traditional bamboo strips.

Workers erect Hong Kong’s bamboo scaffolding installation at this year’s Venice Biennale of Architecture. Photo: Oliver Law

“We wanted to celebrate local craft rather than imposing any sort of pretentious architecture,” says Beau Architects director Charlotte Lafont-Hugo. “I like the raw, honest aspect of it. It’s a little drop of Hong Kong in Venice.”

It’s also a subtle provocation. In March, citing bamboo scaffolding accidents that have killed 23 people since 2018, Hong Kong’s Development Bureau announced plans to phase out bamboo scaffolding in construction projects, replacing it with the steel scaffolding used almost everywhere else in the world.

The move is controversial. Bamboo accounts for 80 per cent of scaffolding in Hong Kong, according to industry estimates, and thousands of registered bamboo scaffolders rely on the trade. Bamboo scaffolding has become inextricably linked with Hong Kong’s identity, from the bamboo theatres that emerge every spring for celebrations such as Tin Hau’s birthday and the Hungry Ghost Festival, to the bamboo flower plaques that greet new businesses and the improbable sight of towering skyscrapers shrouded in bamboo lattices.

The Venice Biennale of Architecture installation was designed by Beau Architects in collaboration with the Architecture Land Initiative and master scaffolder Choi Wing-kei. Photo: Oliver Law

“It’s part of what makes Hong Kong, Hong Kong,” says architect Ying Zhou. Along with architects Fai Au and Sunnie Lau Sing-yeung, Zhou is one of the curators of Hong Kong’s exhibition in Venice, “Projecting Future Heritage: A Hong Kong Archive”. It brings together 33 projects that document quintessential aspects of Hong Kong’s built environment, from public housing estates to land reclamation to the soundscapes of urban streets and rural villages.

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