Grow Your Own! Home, that is

What they won't think of next!

Growing a home from living trees instead of building a home from felled timber is the goal of an architect from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mitchell Joachim, part of the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden and architect Javier Arbona, propose a home that is actually an ecosystem.

...In Joachim's vision, the exterior of the living house is shaped over the course of several decades into a protective crisscross of vines, interspersed with soil pockets and growing plants.

A clay and straw composite fills in the gaps to insulate against the cold and heat and keep out moisture.

He proposes constructing windows manufactured from soy-based plastics that would flex with the home as it grows.

...Joachim's dream is to plan an entire community based on the living house design, but before that can happen, he will need to conduct a year or two's worth of sociology and feasibility studies.

In the meantime, he is currently designing a house in California that will be constructed from 50 percent recycled and reconstituted materials and 50 percent living elements.

The project is called MatScape and Joachim sees it as an experimental step toward the ultimate living house.

Go Joachim!