Design, Photos + Renderings by Architect Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE
Data Source: fastcompany.com | Article by Nate Berg
In a Hudson valley forest in upstate New York, a new type of house has been growing for over twenty years.
The Fab Tree Hab is an ecological architecture project spearheaded by architect Mitchell Joachim, in collaboration with Lara Greden, Javier Arbona, and Habitat for Humanity.
“We wanted to use the powers of computing and fabrication systems and other ideas about how we could prototype this to nudge nature or help train nature to do the things it does naturally, but shape it into usable structures and eventually homes,” Joachim says.
White willow trees sprouted in a biomass farm and grew tall and slender relatively quickly.
They were planted together in clusters and trained onto arched scaffolding. Over time, the clusters will graft together into a thicker trunk to form the columns that support the weight.
“The main goal is to have an engineered living material and get it to work precisely right and know the rules so they can be repeated elsewhere, and wean us off of concrete and steel,” Joachim says.
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