why not just grow a house?

Okay, What if you took saplings, or bamboo, or some other trainable plant, vines perhaps, and wove a house? you could engineer it so that the continued growth would not matter insulation could be hung, as could shingles, it would be flame retardant because it would be moist, you could weave in windows, that is, you could attach windows to woven voids....


it's TOTALLY doable, it'd be time consuming, but, so? so is paying off a mortgage.

 

In a Canadian winter?

*laughs*

 

hey dave
I've watched houses, and civilizations, grown from seed, in fast forward.
I saw this technology blooming forth before my very eyes.
It's not only possible, but inevitable.

 

I assume its because you would have to reinforce it in some way to make it weatherproof, which would damage the plants. The leaves on the inside would rot, die and stink, and fall all over the floor. I wish I wasn't such a realist sometimes....Its a great idea as a summer shelter though, there is a lovely walkway in the city sheltered by a roof of vines, its very pretty.

 

you think I haven't considered this? pruning and a plant's natural tendency to grow towards light would solve the ight problem, plants are VERY resilient, so a few nails and other fasteners would be of no moment to them, just be careful about the materials you use (some metals react with some plants) and you're golden.

edit: and weatherproofing is easy.

 

also...

You should check out Paul Laffoley's artwork.

He has been designing and prophesying this vision for decades. His art is amazing.

 

it would take a fantastic feat of genetic manipulation...but its not out of the realm of possibility

 

I am skeptical, would it keep the rain and condensation out? Anywhere where it gets cold this is of utmost importance. If you could find away to direct all the moisture down the branches and through the walls you would be laughing. I still suspect you would need some traditional building materials to keep you dry, although the house would be almost entirely plant, which is quite an achievement. I am buying this. *gets out spade, shovel and seeds*

 

I kinda like this idea. Start now and it might be ready in 5-10 years.

 

http://images.google.com/images?um=...al&hs=Xrr&q=paul+laffoley+&btnG=Search+Images

 

shingles, you'd train the branches out over the shingles, no problem. and are you familiar with soddies? in the midwest they used to build houses out of bricks of sod, the roots would hold them together. you could use certain fungi to hold mosses together, keep the humidity at a decent level inside, grow some epiphytes, or convert plants to epiphytes by the athmosphere you put them in

in warmer climates you could use large leaf monocotoleden plants to replace the shingles, it could work, but it would be widely variable based on location.

also, it would require some critical thinking based on the hardiness rating, and available plants, it wouldn't be like modern tract housing.

 

Whats the point when we have log cabins.

 

bamboo grows absurdly fast, if you live in a place where it is an option.

 

more fire retardant, you could see the maturity of the house, living houses, each house would produce quite a lot of oxygen, allowing us to fuck around more with CO and CO2.

 

Imagine having a seed that can sprout an organic, living, house-hold.

This is the future of our species..

 

Yeah, I guess you could grow a bamboo hut, but it's not a very manageable plant, can't really bend and mold it.

 

You have thought much about this, I am very impressed. Do it man. Some people pump gas. Some people make hamburgers. Some people make lots of money. Others build houses out of Trees.

Your knowledge astounds me. I can never retain many things. Is it the way your brain works or do you have a particular learning method?

 

some species are very trainable, some of the very fast growing ones even, you would have to keep track of it because if you didn't keep an eye on it yyou would have it going helter skelter, but if you were mindful, you could have a very nice, flexible house frame, really quickly.

 

I seriously first thought about this less than ten minutes ago, I just research quickly, and have a good baseline of useless information about plants.

that and I'm just quirky.