A Beijing-based architecture studio say they want to create a city for 20,000 people made entirely from bamboo.

The company, Penda, have invented a new structural system which uses pieces of bamboo, bound with rope, to create hotels, homes, bridges, floating structures and public space. As new bamboo canes are connected, the structure expands and can carry increasing loads without the need for a single piece of steel or concrete.

Explaining the inspiration behind their unusual concept, the company said in a statement: “Bamboo is a fantastic building material which currently leads a underrated existence in the architectural process of construction. The current state of irresponsible city planning, air-pollution and economic crisis asks the architecture profession to rethink the process of building. The use of natural materials like bamboo and connecting it in a smart, modular system, gives the structure the freedom to grow in every direction.”

The architects, who also have offices in Vienna, presented their vision with a small pavilion called ‘Rising Canes’ at the recent Beijing Design Week. There, they outlined plans for a bamboo city in China’s Anji County – the largest export region for bamboo in the world. They said a habitat for 20 families could be created within the first nine months and 20,000 citizens could live there in seven years time.

A bamboo forest adjacent to the city would provide a constant source of building material, with two new trees planted for every one tree used.

According to Penda, a piece of bamboo is up to three times stronger than a steel beam of similar weight, can reach heights of 40 metres, produces 35 per cent more oxygen than other similar plants and never needs to be replanted.

The company has thrown down the gauntlet for other designers to follow their lead, saying: “Our project describes a true ecological approach of growth, which leaves no harm on the surrounding environment nor on the building material itself and is therefore a counter-movement to a conventional way of the present construction process."