Summum Engineering

Wenxiao Wu has joined us for a two-month internship. He's currently studying architecture at Tianjin University, and is deeply passionate about structural design and how buildings come about through technology. Wenxiao is incredibly excited to learn more in a new cultural context within a multicultural team. He'll be working on a parametric bamboo hyperboloid, a tree column designed using 3D graphic statics, and helping us with the detailed engineering for a timber multi-storey building. Wish him luck! P.S.: Shout-out to Wenxiao's teacher, associate professor Qingpeng LI, and to author of the book shown, associate professor Masoud Akbarzadeh!

At Into The Great Wide Open, innovation meets practice. This year, the music festival featured the `Bouwplaats van de Toekomst', a living lab for a circular, biobased, and emission-free construction site of the future. Together with Studio Akeka, we contributed to this vision through a striking bamboo canopy designed by Akeka that welcomed visitors at the festival entrance. Under a tight timeline, we worked with Akeka's Erno Langenberg to develop a joint parametric model of the structure. After initial design discussions with Robert van Kats and Erno, the structure was modelled in 3D using Karamba3D, then updated after on site measurements of the tree structure were done. We checked wind loads (or someone climbing onto it even though that's a no-no) against the bamboo code NEN-ISO 22156. The reused moso bamboo, originally sourced from Georgia, was carefully assessed for sizing. Recommendations were made for detailing, particularly to deal with shear and potential splitting, ensuring strength and durability. Projects like this help show what’s possible with biobased materials — and how we can literally build a more sustainable future. 🌱 Links to news articles coming out this week in the comments 👇 . Architecture and construction: Rein Van der Geest, Robert van Kats, Erno Langenberg, Jelle Hamers, Randijk Bamboe & Hoveniers Engineering: Torrin Moore, Diederik Veenendaal, Anand Shah, Jort Winkel, Rik Rozendaal

We are pleased to freely share a booklet, having completed the Ecospaces project 🌍, led by Anand Shah with guidance from Diederik Veenendaal, and funded by the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie. The project explores the feasibility of Earth | Stone | Straw | Bamboo as sustainable building materials 🌱 in the Dutch context. Through interviews, literature studies, and workshops, it proposes conceptual design options for low-rise and mid-rise buildings in the Netherlands. The accompanying free booklet 📖 is intended as a primer for structural engineers and designers, offering guidance on relevant codes and references when working with these materials. Beyond structural aspects, it also considers acoustic and thermal performance, while addressing common concerns around durability, fire safety, fungus, and weathering. Importantly, the project moves beyond a mono-material approach, proposing conceptual hybrid floor systems that build on the combined strengths of the materials studied. We are grateful for those participating in the project. Office for the New Earth (ONE), YouCon Jonge constructeurs and VNconstructeurs supported the workshops. We interviewed several experts: Pierre Bidaud (The Stonemasonry Company Limited); David Schmidt (Site Practice); Charles Thuijls (Stampleem.nl); Thomas van Nus (CHRITH architects); Wouter Klijn (Strobouwer.nl); and Kristian Maters (Prefab Strobouw). Please find the booklet via the link below. We would be glad to hear your thoughts and feedback 💬. https://lnkd.in/er6pgPUK

Torrin Moore is joining the crew! After two months of internship with us working on a thin shell house in the Phillipines, Torrin has now joined Summum Engineering as a full-time employee! He has already started working on the detail engineering of a timber building, is working with structural bamboo for a festival installation, and has been exploring opportunities to pursue his interest for the application of mycelium as a structural material. We’re glad that Torrin is joining us for the ride to advance sustainability in the built environment. Wish him luck in the comments!

🦉 Deze bewoners waren de opdrachtgever al voor met het betrekken van het Energiehuis Deltawind, en nu kun je hun aankomende gezinsuitbreiding ook live via webcam volgen! Vorig jaar won het hele team de Nationale Houtbouwprijs voor beste houten gebouw van Nederland - we zijn nóg trotser nu het gebouw steeds meer tot zijn recht komt! 🥲

For those who know.... June 2026, if I have anything to say about it.

🇬🇹✨ What an honor! Today, Britt Verbeek presented her Master thesis work at the Embassy of Guatemala in The Netherlands to ambassador ANA CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ PINEDA and counselor Kimberly Hernández Chacón, with moral support from our very own Torrin Moore. 📚 Britt’s project focused on the parametric design and engineering of a bamboo school for Granja de Lola, a regenerative farm in Guatemala, working in close collaboration with CASSA Guatemala, a local builder of biobased, off-grid buildings. 🌱 Granja de Lola is regenerating a 40-acre plot while uplifting the local community through courses on regenerative practices, supporting women to return to agriculture, and openly sharing knowledge. They hope this bamboo school will become a symbol of regenerative living — showcasing the full cycle from farm to building to table, and fostering education, networks and collaboration. CASSA, meanwhile, hopes to empower Guatemalan builders and engineers through exchange with us and others in the Netherlands. 🌟 The ambassador responded with great enthusiasm and interest. As Torrin put it: “Britt was brilliant!” We'll continue the conversation with the embassy and CASSA, moving forward. We’re incredibly proud of Britt and grateful for the support of all involved, including CASSA, Granja de Lola, and of course her supervisors, Diederik Veenendaal from Summum, and Remy Jansen and Arjen Veldhuis from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.

💙 Home sweet home. We moved to BlueCity (010)! Since 2015, BlueCity has developed from a vacant tropical swimming pool - the former Tropicana - into a circular economy hub for the Netherlands, now home to over fifty businesses. It is a meeting place for pioneers and enterprising minds, to develop a framework for action, towards a circular and blue economy. As a social enterprise and worker-owned cooperative, with a mission to work towards a sustainable built environment, we're very happy to start a new chapter here! We also have fond memories of BlueCity, as it was the venue for our three-day event on bamboo architecture and construction, Bouw met Bamboe! We look forward to meeting and getting to know other BlueCitizens, and welcoming our own friends and partners here. Feel free to drop by for a chat at this amazing place!

🌟 So proud! Britt Verbeek just successfully defended her final thesis at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and was awarded the exceptional grade of 9.2! 🎓 Britt worked on the parametric design and engineering of an organically shaped school building for teaching regenerative agriculture practices to local farmers in Guatemala. The structure itself is made from bundles of local bamboo. She utilized form-finding, machine learning, principle stress lines, she applied the local Guatemalan building code with support from a local engineer, and immersed herself in literature on local bamboo species, construction methods and structural verification. An amazing, and comprehensive piece of engineering! The case study was provided by CASSA Guatemala, with regular support from Tono Aguilar himself. The work was supervised by Remy Jansen and Arjen Veldhuis at the university, and by our own Diederik Veenendaal at the Summum Engineering Cooperative. 🌎 🎍 👩🌾 We hope to have her present her work to or share her work with honorary consul Barbara Manon Derks and ambassador Arjen van den Berg at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Costa Rica and ambassador ANA CRISTINA RODRIGUEZ PINEDA at the Embassy of Guatemala in The Netherlands. What do you think? In doing so, we hope to garner more support for sustainable regenerative agriculture and local bamboo cultivation in Guatemala! Any thoughts or suggestions to support these Guatemalan efforts are welcome! Seeds for a Future, The GREEN Program, Contour Lines Corp, Global Environment Facility, Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), EARA | European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture Britt will continue her education at the Delft University of Technology, and we wish her all the best in her journey! It was a pleasure having you with us.