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Live Architecture — Grow Your Own Home

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the make-like-a-tree-and-get-outta-here dept.

Ostracus writes to share a new take on the word "treehouse." Engineers and plant scientists from Tel Aviv have taken the application of tree shaping to the next level, designing everything from streetlamps to houses. "A home built from trees, the researchers said, would be a natural storm protector. 'After earthquakes and after tsunamis the only structures that still survive are trees,' said Yaniv Naftaly, director of operations at Plantware, a company founded in 2002. Naftaly told LiveScience the same sturdiness should apply to tree-made homes. Eshel and TAU colleague Yoav Waisel are working with Plantware to commercialize the leafy designs. The team found that certain tree species grown aeroponically (in air instead of soil and water) have roots that don't harden. Once the malleable, so-called soft roots grow long enough in the lab, they are molded around metal frames in the shape of a playground or park bench."

4 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Tree houses ... by drpimp · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gives a whole new meaning to "Got Root"!

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  2. Re:From the article by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as you have a good water supply, good soil, and a community that is liberal enough to allow such structures

    ... and several decades to grow anything larger than a park bench. Come now, this would require planning a structure many years before you could use it. Unless they have created some industrial strength Miracle Grow, this is going to remain in the realm of park benches, custom picnic tables and cheesy 3D graphics programs.

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  3. Structural stability of man made design? by cojsl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What happens when you take the inherently strong natural shape of a tree, and modify it to suite the shape a human needs to be useful? Is there still a benefit over say, concrete block? Or does the unnatural shape so foreign to the strengths of the plant, that the benefits are mitigated?

  4. Re:Last time I checked by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't have long pointy ears or hairy feet.

    But you do now?

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