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.

The Fab Tree Hab goes beyond sustainable housing and so-called green design — building with materials that have a low impact on the environment and human health.

"Not only does it do zero damage, but it will hopefully clean the air," said Joachim.

The habitat is based on an ancient gardening method known as pleaching, which weaves together tree branches to form living archways, lattices or screens.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060116/treehouse_tec.html

Holy cow cud! This is like the elves from Dragon Lance! :p

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That is the most gorgeus <sp> I have ever seen! And I thought of Dragon Lance too lol.

That is truly the awesomest.

Ooooooh! That's where I wanna live!!

If they grow one big enough we could all split it because I am sure those houses will be very expensive.

Neat!

If they grow one big enough we could all split it because I am sure those houses will be very expensive.

Yeah they will. I just wish they didn't make it so "modern" looking - they should make it look more natural or pretty or something, and less man-over-nature-y.

Whoa! Awesome! I want one...

If they grow one big enough we could all split it because I am sure those houses will be very expensive.

I had a similar reaction - I wish I could afford to live like that!

Oh snap that's cool.

very cool, for those people in colder climates they need to work on hobit dens.

What can I say other than "I want one!"

It's a neat idea. Too bad it will take decades to grow one. I think marketing is going to be a teensy problem.

The last thing I want in my home is large south-facing windows-- for nine months of the year in Houston, the big problem is staying COOL, not warm. And this year it's beena problem right through January. Thank you, global warming. :think: It always disappoints me how little thought has been put into eco-design for warm climates.

can you say bugs, so cool otherwise.

i agree awesome---except for the buggs--agree on that...\\

peace and love

jenn:pibo:

That's pretty amazing and an absolutely great idea--but that picture is not at all what I was picturing. I was picturing it more as a hollowed out large tree--not some bubbly futuresque oddity.

It would be awesome to get some land and start growing a community. Plan out the streets and neighborhoods and just let it grow for a couple decades... *dreams*

That's the craziest thing I've ever seen! I WANT ONE!