This August, I was very fortunate to be able to take a course with Building Local in Salento, Colombia on Guadua architecture. We began by acquainting ourselves with Guadua's taxonomy and its behavior in the landscape.

In its juvenile form, Guadua is covered in a protective sheath of triangular culm leaves, that can be cleaned of their fuzz and used as a leathery kind of parchment in various handicrafts. Rafa, our master builder-in-residence, displays the leaf, while Natalia, architect & one of our course instructors, does some explaining.
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