In A Gift from Earth by Larry Niven, citizens of Mount Lookitthat on a distant planet have no wood to build homes.The houses on Mount Lookitthat grow whole from pink coral that can fix itself. Flat screen not included. They call it "architectural coral". Can you imagine what it would be like if we had such a material? Architectural coral would make it basically free and effortless to build a house. We seem to have a shortage of growable land coral on Earth, but do we have something similar? Let's take a look at some ideas floating around on the idea of growable homes:
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has spearheaded a program to engineer building materials that grow and repair themselves! Click below to find out more about the Engineering Living Materials Program and the possible home grown homes of the future!
What about building new homes out of old homes? Cleveland studio Redhouse Architecture are trying to use fungus to break down derelict houses into material that can then be used to make new houses. Pretty cool, huh? Watch this video to find out more.
These ideas may seem futuristic, but the future is not that far away!
-Alexandria Kemp
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