New Type of Green Home: Fab Tree Hab
Ever dreamed of living in a tree house, but as you got older realized that they are only for kids? Now there is prototype of a tree house that could revolutionize the home building process. This new green home is called the Fab Tree Hab and was created by three architects of out MIT, Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden and Javier Arbona.
Photo from Mitchell Joachim of Terreform.
History of Green Home
The idea behind the Fab Tree Hab derived from the fact that building designs currently being used failed to fall in the category of truly being sustainable. Even though many architects try to design buildings that are considered green, they are still unnatural to the environment. The idea behind this new type of home is to allow your home to coexist with nature. The walls and exterior of the house allow for people and animals to derive nutrients from it and every piece of the home is completely natural.
The Design
The basic design is based off of a principal called pleaching:
Pleaching is a method of weaving together tree branches to form living archways, lattices, or screens.
The Fab Tree Hab would be produced by first starting a flexible tree at it’s youth, like the ficus. Since the ficus hardens as it gets older, it could be formed into a structure and then would get hard. This is how the basic framework of the home would begin. As the tree gets older it would grow into a tree structure as in the picture above. Along the way, soil and plants would be embedded into the weaved structure to provide for animals and provide insulation.
The interior of the home would be comprised of a clay and straw mixture to provide further structure and insulation to the green home. The windows are made of a soy based plastic and the entire house is heated and cooled naturally. These homes have a completely different look on the outside, but are almost identical inside to existing homes.
One really cool concept of this house is the water cycle throughout the house. Water used in the house is collected from rain water on the roof. The water then cycles throughout the house depending on what you are using the water for. For example, the water from your sink would be the first place for the water to go, then it would circulate for use in the toilet. After the water has completely been used by the homeowner, it drains to get filtered and enters a pond. It will then either evaporate into the atmosphere or soak into the soil.
See the video below of Mitchell Joachim going further in depth about the design of the tree home:
A longer version of this video is available at Scribe Media.
Looking Ahead
Even though the the principals behind this new green home are nothing new, it is difficult to actually produce these houses in a short period of time. Also, As Mitchell Joachim describes at the end of the above video, most areas have regulations that would not allow for a tree house like this to currently be built. The sheet size of the tree would be much larger than allowed. Another big problem would be getting the masses to buy green homes like these because of the way in which they are built.
This idea just gets me really excited. To think that a home can work with the earth and still be a livable home. Who knows of these green homes will ever be more than just a prototype. My hope is that builders begin to incorporate some of the principals that make this house sustainable into new buildings.
