Meet the founder
Archie
Dunnett
Founder of Bamboo Studios. A story about martial arts, people and building the kind of place he always wanted to train in.
Archie Dunnett — Founder
The story
Sport, people and everything in between.
Archie has worked across sales, education, sport, coaching, but always kept his love for martial arts. He received his first Black Belt in Lau Gar Kung Fu aged 11. He earned his Second Degree aged 16, and his Third Degree aged 27. He was a winner at the 2019 Cardiff White-Collar boxing exhibition for Cancer Research, and more recently coached his little sister to win her first boxing match by first-round TKO in March 2026. He has also dabbled in Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi alongside his Kung Fu syllabus.
He has spent most of his career around people and organisations, and has always been drawn to the places where sport and personal development overlap. Teaching children, adults, schools and businesses showed him how much more movement and martial arts can offer than physical fitness alone: confidence, discipline, resilience; a reason to show up.
But most clubs and academies sit at one of two extremes: aggressive, intimidating rooms where violence and dominance rule, or, overpriced sessions teaching techniques that would never hold up in the real world.
Where is the common ground? Where can you go where real techniques, real discipline, can be taught without the intimidation, and bring people together to better themselves, and the community?
That question became the foundation for Bamboo Studios.
In his words
Why Bamboo?
“In my years of Kung Fu, I found that the people you train with are just as important as what you learn, I wanted to build somewhere that embodies just that.”
I didn't want to build another traditional martial arts club. I wanted something broader. Something that works for a child walking into their first class, an adult who just wants to get fitter, a group of friends trying something new, a woman learning to defend herself, or a company after a completely different kind of team day.
Bamboo Studios exists because I believe combat sports can genuinely make people's lives better. That's the whole point.
The philosophy
Strong enough to stand.
Flexible enough to bend.
Bamboo is strong, but it bends rather than breaks. It grows quietly, puts down deep roots and thrives as part of an ecosystem, never alone. Those are the qualities we want built into the studio, and the people in it, to carry.
Strength
Be strong enough to handle what life throws at you.
Flexibility
Be able to adapt without losing who you are.
Growth
Always keep learning, improving and pushing yourself.
Balance
Build strength and ambition without losing health, wellbeing and enjoyment.
The scope
More than martial arts.
Bamboo Studios is deliberately bigger than martial arts. What we're really building is experiences around movement, wellbeing, confidence and connection.
- The Arts
- Mixed Adult classes
- Children's classes
- Women's self-defence
- Corporate experiences
- Team building
- Events
- Workshops
- Residentials
- Community experiences
Different expressions of the same underlying idea: help people move better, feel better, connect with others and become more capable.
Where I'm taking Bamboo Studios.
The long-term ambition is for Bamboo Studios to grow into a premium movement and lifestyle brand — and eventually into physical spaces that hold every part of the philosophy under one roof.
Somewhere you don't simply come to train. Somewhere you spend time, meet people, learn something, feel healthier — and become part of a community.
That's a long-term ambition, and we're honest about where we are: right at the beginning of it.
“I don't want Bamboo Studios to just be somewhere you go to train. I want it to become somewhere you feel part of. Somewhere you become stronger, meet good people, learn new things and leave feeling better than when you arrived. because your environment is everything”
Archie Dunnett — Founder, Bamboo Studios
Be part of it.
Join the Bamboo community for class updates, events and news on the studio as it takes shape.
