Mitchell Joachim of Terreform, a non-profit, sustainable architectural design organization,  discusses how we can manipulate the growth of trees to make a sustainable living home of the future.   The idea for the technology has been around for 2500 years and he offers video of examples of controlled tree growth.  Living tree houses would eliminate wasted energy used in harvesting wood for lumber, hauling and cutting lumber, and they would be carbon neutral. 

The idea that these are futuristic homes stems from bureaucracy really.  Will one be able to get a building permit for a living treehouse?  Will insurance companies insure a living treehouse?  I hope insurance companies and city planners will at least approve a test home.  Why wait for the future when we have now?  I don’t know that we can get much greener than living in treehouses.  Take a look at the video and decide for yourself. 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1097293/mitchell_joachim_of_terraform_on_sustainable_architecture/

Other helpful links about the “Fab Tree Hab”, Mitchell Joachim and Terreform:

http://www.archinode.com/bienal.html

http://terreform.blogspot.com/

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