Elora Hardy facts for kids

Elora Hardy (born in 1980) is a Canadian designer. She is famous for creating amazing buildings made from bamboo. Elora founded a company called IBUKU.

With her team at IBUKU and her father, John Hardy, she designed a whole community of bamboo homes. These homes are located near Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia.

Elora was born in Canada but spent most of her childhood growing up in Bali. When she was 14, she moved to the United States for boarding school. She later studied fine arts and worked in the fashion world. She even designed cool patterns for the famous brand Donna Karan.

In 2010, Elora returned to Bali. She started Ibuku, a design company that uses bamboo and other natural materials. Since then, Ibuku has built over 90 bamboo structures. You can find their work in Southeast Asia and Africa. This includes the famous Green School Bali campus.

Elora also designed a yoga space and a cooking classroom at the Four Seasons in Bali. She worked on the inside of the Tri restaurant in Hong Kong. She also made furniture for the Como Marketplace in Singapore and tree-house rooms at Bambu Indah.

Because of her work with bamboo buildings, Elora Hardy was named an Architectural Digest Innovator in 2013. In 2015, she gave a popular TED Talk called “Magical houses, made of bamboo.” By early 2019, it had been watched over four million times!

Elora's Early Life and Inspiration

Elora Hardy was born in Canada in 1980. Her parents, Penny Berton and John Hardy, were both very artistic. They moved to Bali, Indonesia, in the 1970s. Elora grew up surrounded by talented local craftspeople.

These artists taught her many skills. She learned how to carve, paint, and do batik. Batik is a special Indonesian way of dyeing fabric using wax. As a child, Elora loved creating things like princesses and fairies. She even got to design and decorate her own room!

Once, her mother asked her to draw her dream house. Elora drew a fairy house that looked like a mushroom. It had windows and a door built right into it.

Elora's mother, Penny Berton, was a jewelry designer. She worked with local goldsmiths. Together, they created beautiful, hand-carved jewelry.

In the 1990s, Elora's father, John Hardy, started a successful international jewelry company. He founded it with his second wife, Cynthia Hardy.

From Fashion to Eco-Design

As a young adult, Elora moved to the United States. She lived there for 14 years. First, she attended Idyllwild Arts Academy in California. This was a boarding school for students who loved the arts.

Later, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tufts University in 2004. The next year, Elora moved to Manhattan, New York City. She became a print designer for the Donna Karan Collection. She also worked for the famous DKNY brand.

She spent five years in New York. She painted on fabric and used computer graphics to create designs. Even though she enjoyed New York, she felt a strong pull to make a difference for the environment. This feeling kept drawing her back to Asia.

Elora's grandfather was the famous Canadian writer, Pierre Berton.

Building a Greener Future

Elora's father and stepmother sold their jewelry company shares. They then started focusing on building an eco-friendly school in Bali. By 2008, the Green School was open for students. People from all over the world became interested in it.

In 2010, Elora decided to move back to Indonesia. She joined her father and a group of skilled artisans and designers. Their goal was to build homes using bamboo. More and more people wanted environmentally friendly homes. Her father saw this as a great chance to use his skills and ideas. The same group of artisans had helped build the Green School.

The Power of Bamboo

Since the early 2000s, John Hardy had been trying out bamboo for buildings. He wanted to create eco-friendly homes. He was inspired by Linda Garland, who helped bring bamboo into modern building. Instead of worrying about climate change, he and his wife decided to act. They wanted to create a more sustainable world.

Bamboo grows naturally and quickly. It doesn't take up land that could be used for food crops. If treated correctly, bamboo can last for many decades. When it's no longer needed, it can return to nature without causing harm. They planned to use bamboo in their designs. Elora joined them in this exciting project. Their bamboo designs aimed to create "beautiful curves that created comfy spaces."

Through building the Green School, Elora founded IBUKU. This company is made up of craftspeople, architects, and designers. They build houses and design items only from bamboo. "IBU-" means 'mother' and "-KU" means 'me'. So, Ibuku means 'my mother nature'.

Elora saw huge potential in bamboo as a building material. It is strong and good for the environment. She explains that every step of treating bamboo must be done carefully. Every part of its use in a design must be thought about. This helps keep its strength and makes projects last longer.

After the Green School, Elora and her Ibuku team worked on their next project. This was the Green Village. Like the school, it was built entirely from bamboo. Bamboo can even be used for large structures like bridges. It can also be cheaper than materials like steel and aluminum. These benefits were clear in their work on the Sharma Springs Bamboo Tree House. Bamboo was becoming a great alternative to expensive building materials.

Bamboo and Sustainable Design

Elora's projects show how important sustainable design is. Bamboo is one of many sustainable materials. It has been used for many years. Bamboo can hold heavy weights and is flexible. Most importantly, it is resistant to earthquakes.

There are 1,450 different types of bamboo. They grow in huge amounts in tropical areas worldwide. They grow incredibly fast. Some types of bamboo can grow two inches an hour! They can even grow one and a half meters (about 5 feet) in a single day.

Bamboo can become strong enough for building in just four years. Plus, it grows back easily for many years without much care. This makes it very sustainable. These are just some of the benefits of using bamboo in modern buildings. It shows what bamboo could mean for the future of construction materials.

No two bamboo shoots are exactly alike. This makes designing with it a fun challenge. Bamboo comes in different curves and sizes. Each piece must be carefully chosen for its spot in a building. Elora sees this as a chance to be a flexible designer. She has to adjust not just the bamboo, but her ideas too. Often, the final result is even better than what they first imagined.

Elora is not a typical architect. She doesn't let environmental limits stop her. For example, bamboo can't bend exactly how you want it to. And Elora didn't study architecture in the traditional way. This has allowed her to design buildings creatively, without being held back by old rules.

As a sustainable designer, Elora has learned to create her own rules. These rules help her meet her clients' needs. They also help her bring nature into her designs. She has learned to respect bamboo. She designs with its strengths in mind, protects it, and uses its natural curves beautifully.

Sustainable design is becoming a unique part of home building for architects. An architect's choices can reduce or increase how much energy a building uses. It's about creating spaces that are healthy for people and good for the environment. Architects and designers continue to look for new ways to be sustainable. They want to create buildings that have a positive impact on the environment and the people who use them. This helps create a more sustainable world for everyone.

See also

In Spanish: Elora Hardy para niños

• Bamboo construction
• Sustainable design
• A Tree House in Bali
• Sustainable Bamboo Buildings
• Bamboo Homes
• Modern Sustainable Architecture
• Natural Technology Application in Architecture