Rising above Mertasari Beach in the Sanur district of Denpasar, Bali’s capital city, the BaleBio Pavilion marks a milestone in regenerative building. Designed by Cave Urban and developed through Bauhaus Earth’s ReBuilt initiative in collaboration with the Bamboo Village Trust and Kota Kita, the 84-square-metre structure brings together material innovation, craftsmanship, and community. Small in scale but ambitious in vision, BaleBio challenges the extractive construction model associated with Bali’s “concrete creators”.
Bauhaus Earth is an interdisciplinary non-profit organisation dedicated to the regenerative transformation of the built environment. The organisation works globally to demonstrate how bio-based materials and circular design can replace extractive construction models. In Indonesia, it partnered with the Bamboo Village Trust, a non-profit advancing bamboo-based livelihoods and supply chains, and Kota Kita, an urban design NGO specialising in participatory planning and civic engagement. Together, the three organisations aligned material innovation, local production, and community participation to realise BaleBio as a prototype for regenerative architecture.
A community-based brief
BaleBio was designed through a collaborative process with local partners and the community to establish a culturally relevant brief and typology. Its form draws inspiration from the Bale Banjar, an open village hall central to Balinese life. Traditionally built from timber and natural materials, these communal halls are now often replaced with concrete structures. By reinterpreting this typology in sustainable, locally sourced materials, the project offered a grounded way to reintroduce regenerative design within a familiar social framework.
“The BaleBio draws upon local Balinese vernacular typologies, reimagined through the use of locally sourced natural and recycled materials to create a vision for how construction can have a positive impact on the environment,” explains Jed Long, Co-founder and Project Director at Cave Urban.
The pavilion now functions as a community anchor, transforming a once-neglected site — previously earmarked for a car park — into a public meeting space, classroom, and stage for local events.
Transforming bamboo
A sweeping barrel-vaulted roof of slender bamboo rafters, clad in pelupuh (flattened bamboo), rises 8.5 metres to form a canopy that provides shade, natural ventilation, and passive cooling. Beneath it lies the project’s key innovation: the transformation of bamboo from a traditional round-pole material into a contemporary, engineered structural product.
The pavilion’s frame uses locally sourced petung bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper also known as giant bamboo) — compressed, laminated, and resin-bonded, this laminate bamboo achieves the strength and versatility of timber or steel, while retaining its renewability. Manufactured off-site, prefabricated laminate bamboo components were then assembled on-site using a combination of precision-engineered connections and traditional joinery. This hybrid approach integrates modern structural techniques with the artistry of local craftsmen.
“The BaleBio is an opportunity for bringing together a broad group of local stakeholders who are all developing solutions to the ecological impact of the built environment,” says Jed Long. “The pavilion demonstrates that we can build in a way that is regenerative rather than extractive, making use of local materials and knowledge that already exist.”
Regenerative architecture in practice
BaleBio was conceived as a prototype for carbon-negative architecture. It demonstrates how regenerative design can produce positive social, ecological, and economic outcomes. Life-cycle assessments, structural testing, and value-chain analyses — conducted under Bauhaus Earth’s ReBuilt research framework — are contributing to a roadmap for scaling bamboo construction across Indonesia.
As the first building in Bali to use structural laminate bamboo, BaleBio showcases the potential for bio-based materials to replace emission-intensive systems. All bamboo used in the pavilion was grown, processed, and fabricated within Indonesia, strengthening local supply chains and reducing transport emissions.
The ReBuilt programme
The ReBuilt Project, supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), explores regional pathways towards regenerative construction in Germany, Indonesia, South Africa, and Bhutan. In Bali, the research focuses on bamboo as a highly renewable, locally abundant material with the potential for carbon-neutral or carbon-negative building. Through projects like BaleBio, Bauhaus Earth and its partners are developing an evidence base for bio-based construction that integrates cultural heritage, community participation, and environmental performance.
A new narrative for Bali’s built environment
As tourism and influencer culture continue to shape Bali’s coastline through carbon-intensive development, BaleBio offers a radically different vision: a building created for and by the local community, made from regenerative materials, and rooted in place.
Small in footprint but rich in impact, BaleBio stands as a prototype for a more reciprocal architecture across Indonesia — one that restores ecosystems, supports local economies, and reaffirms cultural continuity through design.
