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Home of the Future to Be Grown from Living Trees

by Terrence O'Brien on September 19, 2008 at 11:18 AM

Scientists Grow Tree Homes
If you're anything like us, you've dreamed of living like Robinson Crusoe -- in the trees, using what nature provided to make the tools necessary for survival. Well, we may soon be able to fulfill part of that dream. According to scientists from Tel Aviv University and MIT, we could see homes grown from trees within a decade. The new technique is far from your traditional topiary: Scientists use a technique called airoponics, where plants are grown without soil, that allows them to grow trees according to templates. This would allow architects and scientists to create basic structures such as park benches and bus shelters from plants.

The tree homes are designed by a group called Plantware, which hopes the homes will help reduce pollution and reconnect people with the Earth. The homes would come equipped with a whole host of eco-friendly features (not the least of which is the ability to convert massive quantities of carbon dioxide to oxygen), like solar panels and wind turbines for generating power and special composting septic tanks that convert human waste into nutrients for the tree.

Scientist hope to have the first prototype built within ten years, but expect this technology to be prohibitively expensive at first, available only to the most well off environmentalists. [From: Daily Mail]

Tags: airoponics, plantware, science, tree, tree house, TreeHouse, trees

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