Ignacio Platas Oldrino founded the Bamboo Institute in 2004 after two years of designing and building modern bamboo structures in Costa Rica. He studied fine arts, industrial and product design in Rome and New York City (1994 IDSA Merit Award), in 1992 he started the Lalalandia Entertainment Research Corporation, whose large scale fountains, omnisensorial environments and pneumatic installations have been written about in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, as well as Domus Magazine .
In the early 90's, he began composing electronic music and, as Once11, formed the avante garde recording trio: Multipolyomni and We™ , whose innovative music and concepts continue to enjoy a growing international following. (He is about to release his second solo album>>) In 1999, he moved to Barcelona to focus on making music, computer games and designing cutting edge music visualization software: Su-Toolz and co-founded Su-Studio, a video game architecture practice. He's latest side project is Replayful.com, an award winning digital communication agency.
After three years in Spain, he led a team to the Caribbean to design bamboo prototypes in situ and finally experience the magic of the fastest plant.
Kurt Przybilla is an inventor, educator, writer and self-described “Positive Futurologist”. He invented Tetra Tops®, the world's first spinning top with more than one axis of spin. These award winning toys have been featured in the New Tork Times, Popular Science, Child and Discover Magazine, as well as at the Smithsonian's First Toy Invention Festival.
He recently wrote and produced Molecularium™, a National Science Foundation funded, computer animated musical cartoon for digital dome theaters. Kurt taught in New York City for over fifteen years. He lived in Japan for three and a half years where he studied Japanese archery, flower arrangement, language and poetry.
Stefanie Alice Vandendriessche Corporate Communications. She manages the external communications for the bamboo institute in Europe.
