Reaching over 130’ high (40 meters) clearly visible at great distances in the Trastevere/Testaccio districts of Rome, in the collection of the Macro Museum, Big Bambu became a symbol of the burgeoning arts neighborhood and of the museum located within the former stockyards of Rome. Situated within the sculpture at 20 feet high and created of the complex network of bamboo was a small performance space with seating for an audience of 40 surrounding and above the stage -like perches in a tree; as Macro Museum’s director Bartolomeo Pietromarchi described “an elevated public square” in which lectures, performances and video projections took place. An additional 20 visitors at a time could experience the double helix stair and labyrinth paths up to over 60' high to multiple habitable spaces giving a 360 degree perspective view. The sculpture was a vast network of 6,000 interconnected bamboo poles, lashed together with 60 miles of rock climber’s rope and took 10 weeks to build by the Starns and their crew comprised of 15 US based and 10 Italian rock climbers.