Bathed in the warm afternoon sun, the bamboo construction site hummed with quiet determination. Meyco Danu Pradana (Danu), a Village Facilitator with the Environmental Bamboo Foundation (YBLL), walked toward Kampoeng Batara Chairman Widie Nurmahmudy (Cak Widie), who was closely overseeing the revitalization work.
The air carried more than the scent of earth. It was filled with the distinctive fragrance of freshly split wet bamboo. Amid the dominant aroma of bamboo and palm fiber, the rhythm of bamboo construction echoed through the site. Thak! Thak! Tok! Wooden mallets struck bamboo pegs, locking each joint with the precision that comes only from years of craftsmanship.
"Move it just another centimeter, Cak! Otherwise the peg will split the bamboo fibers," shouted Samsul Efendi, one of the local builders. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he remained focused on aligning the joint.
This was the atmosphere of the community-led effort to revitalize the Bamboo House in Kampoeng Batara, Papring Hamlet, Kalipuro Village, Banyuwangi, East Java.
"The building had become structurally fragile, so since then the residents rarely gathered here for community activities," Danu explained on Monday (February 16, 2026).
Casual conversations flowed naturally alongside the gradual assembly of the building. Once completed, the Bamboo House will serve as a community learning center where children and residents can explore nature-based education, ecology, conservation, and local culture. It will also become a venue for educational activities, including traditional schools, dance and music classes, batik making, and bamboo handicrafts.
Cak Widie described the extensive damage to the Bamboo House, which affected nearly every part of the structure, from the supporting columns and roof to the woven bamboo walls. According to him, the deterioration was caused by the building's age, weak structural joints in the previous construction, and termite attacks resulting from the absence of proper bamboo preservation treatment.
This revitalization program, carried out in partnership with PT Pertamina (Persero), is a continuation of the bamboo preservation field school previously organized in the area. During the implementation, YBLL collaborated with an architect from Mojokerto and local craftsmen from Papring Village. The result is a modern bamboo house measuring 10 by 15 meters.
To address the causes of the previous damage, the revitalization began with proper bamboo preservation techniques, using sustainably harvested bamboo. In other words, the bamboo selected for the construction had reached its optimal harvesting age and was carefully chosen to ensure a strong, durable structure.
"We use three preservation techniques: boiling, Vertical Soak Diffusion (VSD), and smoking," Danu explained.
Construction began in January, and the building now stands firmly in place. Danu hopes that through his work at YBLL, he can contribute to strengthening environmentally based community empowerment while establishing the Bamboo House as a center for bamboo education.
