Book excerpt: Bambusa guadua, the tropical giant bamboo, is the most versatile, reliable architectural material of its native mountainous regions. Bamboo's delightful exterior and exotic reputation obscures its oaklike strength. 'New Bamboo' is a colour portfolio of contemporary structures and decorative designs demonstrating the appeal of building with natural materials for the modern eye. Properly treated, bamboo is as reliable as prime-grade hardwoods, beautiful in its own right, and suitable for commercial and residential structures in any climate. This is an anthology of bamboo construction by different experts: an agronomist, architects, a designer, and a builder, that showcases projects in Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia, where this product has been used as a traditional construction material for centuries. Also covered are France and Germany, where architects are discovering the delights of working with bamboo. Guadua is beautiful but not so delicate that it cannot be used in commercial structures like the auditorium-size pavilion built for the Hannover Expo 2000. Here are delightful details and rugged outbuildings that show bamboo as a most natural design element.