Main content

Can we build houses from living trees?

What could be more joyful than a treehouse that provides a comfortable home as well as cheaper, greener constructions. Wishful thinking or the future of architecture?

It鈥檚 the stuff of fairy tales 鈥 a beautiful cottage, with windows, chimney and floorboards 鈥 and supported by a living growing tree. CrowdScience listener Jack wants to know why living houses aren鈥檛 a common sight when they could contribute to leafier cities with cleaner air. The UK has an impressive collection of treehouses, but they remain in the realm of novelty, for good reasons. Architects are used to materials like concrete and steel changing over time, but a house built around a living tree needs another level of flexibility in its design. That doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 impossible and CrowdScience hears about a project in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where architect Ahadu Abaineh made a three-storey, supported by 4 living Eucalyptus trees as a natural foundation.

Host Marnie Chesterton meets some of the global treehouse building fraternity, including builder of over 200 structures, Takashi Kobayashi, who adapts his houses to the Japanese weather. In Oregon, USA, Michael Garnier has built an entire village of treehouses for his 鈥淭reesort鈥. He鈥檚 developed better ways of building , including the Tree Attachment Bolt, which holds the weight of the house while minimising damage to the tree.

Professor Mitchell Joachim from Terreform One explains the wild potential of living architecture, a movement which looks at organic ways of building. He鈥檚 currently building a prototype living house, by shaping willow saplings onto a scaffold that will become a home, built of live trees.

Photo Credit: Ahadu Abaineh

Available now

33 minutes

Last on

Mon 22 Feb 2021 18:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 19 Feb 2021 20:32GMT
  • Fri 19 Feb 2021 21:32GMT
  • Sun 21 Feb 2021 23:32GMT
  • Mon 22 Feb 2021 04:32GMT
  • Mon 22 Feb 2021 11:32GMT
  • Mon 22 Feb 2021 18:32GMT

Featured in...

Podcast