Though bamboo has been used in buildings in China and elsewhere in the world for millennia, it has not penetrated the industrialized construction market (though bamboo scaffolding is used in Asia in the construction of high-rise buildings)
A USC prof is researching and promoting the use of bamboo in place of steel for construction. (Do you have any comments, Dan?)
When we were in Hong Kong a few years ago, the sight of bamboo scaffolding going up a high rise building was unbelievable. We are not talking a few stories high, but the bamboo stretches up 20-30 stories high that seemed to sway in the breeze.