Celebrating Visionaries in Bamboo Innovation

Mr. Lin Hai - most known in the commercial world as Larry Lin - is an expert in the field of industrial processing and utilization of bamboo, a visiting professor at Nanjing Forestry University, vice president of China Forest Products Industry Association, vice president of China Bamboo Industry Association, and the Founder of the dasso group.

Larry’s father was a German-trained physician working for the nationalist government prior to China’s rebirth from Qing Dynasty to Republic of China and then to The People’s Republic of China. Due to his family association working for the nationalist government, Larry was forced to quit school at an early age in his teens. Larry’s father understood the devastation of a future without education for Larry, encouraging Larry to “observe meticulously” and “put your heart into what you are doing”. Larry holds these words deep in his memory. He started his career in the forestry department as early as 1964 as a junior forester, managing the local county forest and worked his way up to be trusted in managing a furniture factory in the state-own enterprises. When the Chinese government initiated a great push to encourage state-owned employees to strike out on their own, Larry led his close associates to venture into bamboo building material production. It was not a smooth journey, the world of the entrepreneur is challenging; however, his achievement is now well-known.

Even though bamboo usage has a long history in China; bamboo history has long been associated with handicraft and small-scale production. When Larry established dasso in early 1992, Larry saw a vision for bamboo as an industrialized building material guided by standardized operating procedures to achieve stable and standardized properties. From then on, for over 3 decades, the company has blazed ahead in the development of new bamboo products under Larry’s leadership.

The name “dasso” is the incorporation of the village where dasso was originally established – Da- Zhuang in Chinese characters, and superior Moso bamboo. This derives into “Da-S-So” or “dasso”. Today, the village of Dazhuang and ‘dasso’ have become synonymous with and known worldwide for their innovative bamboo products under the ‘dasso’ brand.

Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, today the ‘dasso Group’ has 14 manufacturing facilities and over 1,100 employees, in addition to owning over 2,700 acres of productive, sustainable bamboo forest in China. The ‘dasso Group’ is undeniably the leader of the development and innovation of bamboo products, including bamboo flooring, decking, siding, and furnishings.
With its own design and R&D center, the ‘dasso Group’ holds over 40 international and domestic patents to date and continues to develop new technologies to enhance the use of bamboo in commercial and residential indoor and outdoor applications, as well as for use in many industries. The innovations and patented technologies include fire-resistant, weather-resistant, and high-strength bamboo materials for use in flooring, outdoor decking, wall cladding, furniture board, fencing, acoustic tiles, and more recently wind turbine blades. Larry continues to work with companies around the world to produce a huge number of products.
dasso is committed to the innovative use of bamboo. Some of the more challenging projects are the fire-resistance ceiling in the Madrid International Airport, the acoustic bamboo interior design for Wuxi Grand Theatre, and the bamboo dashboard for car interiors on the new BMW and Lexus. Under Larry’s leadership, dasso continue to collaborate with well-known brand as IKEA, Kohler, MUJI and WMF on the creation of bamboo household products.

Larry has won more than 20 awards, including the Lifetime Honor Award from the China Forest Products Industry, the 30th Anniversary Meritorious Person Award of China Bamboo Industry Association, the Second Prize of National Invention Technology, the China Patent Excellence Award, the National Key New Product Award, the Contribution Award of China's Forestry

Characteristic Industry, the Most Influential Person Award of China's Flooring Industry, and now today we honor him with the World Bamboo Pioneer Award.