Yoking it up with Elora Hardy
- Cynthia Sciberras
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Elora Hardy is a pioneer of sustainable design whose work with bamboo has reshaped the way we imagine living with nature. As founder and creative director of IBUKU, she leads a team dedicated to building breathtaking structures that honour both craftsmanship and the environment. She shares her guiding philosophy, her hopes for the future of sustainable architecture, and how beauty, balance, and connection are at the heart of everything she creates.
Do you have a guiding philosophy or personal mantra?
Be both flexible and strong, like bamboo.
What does the concept of sustainability mean to you in 2025, particularly as a designer working with natural materials in Bali? How do you see the role of bamboo evolving in sustainable construction?
All that matters is that we find a healthy future. The idea of sustainability has been around since before I was born, and it’s not working. ‘Sustaining’ isn’t an exciting enough concept to motivate most, and future fear isn’t as tangible as current convenience and desire. So the word has failed. I wouldn’t be in architecture if not for bamboo; most buildings are built from materials that do harm, can’t be grown back, and will soon be used up. Bamboo showed me that if we can build castles out of grass, anything is possible. As my dad says about Green School, which inspired me to join this movement, bamboo is a symbol to the kids of an abundant and creative future—they can grow enough of it to build anything they could dream of.
How do you define beauty in architecture, and how does this concept influence your work with bamboo and sustainable materials? How important is beauty in driving the success and impact of your projects?
I define beauty as a balance between the natural and the orderly, familiar and novel, repetition and variation. This is an understanding shared across many cultures and traditions. Humans resonate with nature and we also want to see our involvement in it; that’s where artistry and craftsmanship come into play. Bamboo is wild and organic, yet it can also be shaped and woven into patterns that have rhythm and flow. The magic happens when we embrace its raw qualities while guiding it into forms that feel intentional. When we let the material speak, we are working as nature.
Beauty drives us because it matters. It shapes how a space makes us feel—calm, inspired, or connected. Beauty is linked to significance, gives meaning, tells a story or grounds us in nature. Nothing catches people’s hearts more than love, and so beauty is a powerful tool to inspire change, which is at the heart of sustainability. Real impact begins when beauty moves us to act with intention toward the most worthwhile possibilities.
I believe that something can only be truly beautiful if it supports Earth as our home.
Reflecting on the past decade, what have been your proudest achievements personally or professionally?
Looking back on the past decade, I’m proud that we’ve demonstrated a new way of living that brings humans and nature back into alignment. Since the dawn of time, structures have been about protection and defense, making us feel cut off from the rest of life. Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve taken that too far, leading to a disconnect from the natural world, from each other, and from our own humanity.
We’re creating spaces that resonate more with the rest of nature, focusing on how people feel within them. Feelings like delight, calm, familiarity, and wonder are what we often see. Our places allow people to engage with the world in a cohesive way, as part of a larger system. It’s all about fostering those connections and celebrating our place within nature.
How do you see the role of women evolving in sustainable design and architecture? What unique contributions do you believe women bring to this field?
The future needs balance, and so to generalise broadly, women need to step up and bring what’s missing in sustainable design and architecture so that structures stop reinforcing separation. Across many cultures, women today are expected and allowed to experience emotion, while men are more often raised to be tough and action-driven, rewarded for finding solutions rather than forging relationships.
In a world where we've become disconnected from the landscape we rely on for life, we need to connect with ourselves, each other, the material world, and everything beyond. A building is a shell, it’s a layer of ourselves that fits us into the rest of existence.
Looking ahead, how do you envision the future of sustainable architecture, and what role do you see IBUKU playing in shaping a more eco-conscious and aesthetically beautiful built environment?
Looking ahead, I see the future of architecture as one where we put nature back at the centre and recognise ourselves as part of it. It’s about creating designs that draw from the source of nature. It’s so much more than incorporating features like large windows or landscaping. We would like designers to consider, if they had never seen a building before, if there were no precedent, what might they create? We propose that they ask what they want people to feel there, in addition to what they need to do there. At IBUKU, I’ve learned so much from bamboo, not just as a material but as a mentor. It has a fiercely independent and yet also flexible character. While IBUKU has set a path for exploring these ideas, our goal is to encourage a broader conversation about how architecture can resonate with life and allow for a beautiful future.
