Zip Tie Domes built our first Geodesic Silo Dome prototype using Bamboo Struts.

The dome was built in the center of a bamboo grove in Tennessee, and will serve as an outdoor retreat for the property owner.

According to the bamboo article on Wikipedia, Bamboo has a higher specific compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete, and a specific tensile strength that rivals steel.

The bamboo stalks, or "culms" are about 1.5" in diameter, and 20' long, and have a slight tapering of the diameter along the length of the stalk.

Since the diameter of the bamboo stalk is not consistent, a bamboo strut will not always lock at the correct angle inside the locking collar of the geodesic dome hub.

By adding a 4" long sleeve made from 1.5" PVC pipe that fits around the bamboo stalk, the hub will lock inside the hub at the correct angle.

The 4" sleeves are put into a jig and drilled with a 3/8" drill bit.

Assembly took about 3 hours.

The dome easily held my weight of 240 lbs from just one section of the dome and did not even flinch. You could probably pull your car transmission out with this dome.

The bamboo is much, much stronger than the 1.5" PVC struts.
For our next bamboo dome, we will use much longer struts, as bamboo does not flex like PVC.
It appears that using 65 of the 10' long bamboo struts for building a 32' wide and 16' tall 2v dome would be practical with this setup.
With 165 of the 10' bamboo struts, a 3v 5/8 dome that is 50' wide and 29' tall with 41,000 cubic feet of volume and 1,956 floor space would be a possible structure, with the 3v 5/8 hubs costing $488.00