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The study explored an innovative scheme to improve the load‐bearing capacity of bamboo by infilling it with concrete to form a composite column as a compression member for low‐cost buildings. A total of four samples of bamboo of five different lengths (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 m) were prepared with concrete (concrete infilled) and without concrete for three different commonly used concrete grades (C12/15, C15/20, and C20/25) and the load‐carrying capacity tested to determine its resistance under compression. Generally, there was a considerable improvement in structural performance in terms of load‐carrying capacity when the bamboo culms were infilled with plain concrete. The failure load capacity of plain bamboo (no concrete infill) was reduced by 26.4% with an increase in the length of the bamboo from 0.2 to 1 m. Concrete‐infilled bamboo with C15, C20, and C25 led to an increment of 58.7%, 103%, and 139.1% of the failure load capacity relative to that of the plane bamboo culms sample test length at 1 m, respectively. Bamboo infilled with concrete grade C25 had a larger failure load as compared to those infilled with concrete grade C20 and C15. The study concludes that concrete in‐filled bamboo increases the buckling resistance as well as the load‐carrying capacity and it can be an alternative composite building material to steel and concrete for building under light loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]