New Book Brings Traditional Asian Style to Contemporary Living and Shows How to Bring Bamboo Creatively Home

SANTA BARBARA, CA, July 2002 —

Bamboo Style (Gibbs Smith, Publisher; $39.95 hardcover; ISBN 1-58685-092-X; 8 _ x 10 in; 176 pp; 150 Color Photographs; July 2002) creatively shows how every room of the house can be designed, decorated or accented with sensual bamboo furniture, flooring, wall covering, ceiling material and accessories.

Bamboo is flexible, strong, beautiful, simple, elegant, renewable, sustainable, and best of all affordable. It is highly versatile, requiring little care yet having an appeal that can change an ordinary setting into an exotic oasis. “Bamboo is sacred,” explains author Gale Beth Goldberg, “it embodies the interconnectedness of all life on this planet.”

While this book provides a basic introduction to the extensive and deeply rooted role that bamboo plays for more than half of the globe’s population, and outlines traditional and historical uses of bamboo in Asian cultures and other Pacific Rim populations, its main thrust is on bamboo in contemporary environments, both indoors and outdoors.

For do-it-yourselfers, the bamboo projects in this book – from a simple ladle to a more complex pergola for the garden – will inspire you to create more designs of your own. In addition, the sourcebook facilitates connections to designers, manufacturers, artists, suppliers, and organizations that present bamboo as a cosmopolitan material for our time.

Gale Beth Goldberg received her master’s degree in architecture from MIT and her undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has been a practicing architect for twenty years. Because of her commitment to educate and teach people about bamboo and its many uses, a percentage of the sales from Bamboo Style will be contributed to support bamboo initiatives and organizations throughout the world.

Founded in 1969, Gibbs Smith, Publisher specializes in books on design and architecture and also features titles from categories including children’s (featuring the celebrated Sierra Club Books for Children series), inspirational, nature, gardening, western, holiday and cookbooks. In addition, Gibbs Smith, Publisher offers an impressive array of many other design titles, such as The Japanese Bath by Yoshiko Yamamoto and Bruce Smith, and Wabi Sabi Style by James and Sandra Crowley.