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So if I started now, my great grandkids could have an eco-friendly home that smells like moss and fungus?

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I recall an article in Fine Woodworking Magazine that described a "Tree Circus" in California. It was a garden of trees that had been trained into whimsical shapes. The shapes included ladders, lattices, and even a living chair. The trees grafted onto each other where they came in contact.

See http://www.arborsmith.com/treecircus.html for a description and pictures.

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Check out Paul Lafoley's article in "Disinformation: the Interviews". He proposes something very similar to this.

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Check out Paul Lafoley's article in "Disinformation: the Interviews". He proposes something very similar to this.

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Could be less than ten years if you use fast growing trees in the tropics.
The best part of this idea is that it's being developed with living trees in several different places in the world today. The idea of the house grown from trees is not new at all Swedenborg 1688 and Lorber 1842 wrote about it, Wiechula in Germany in the 1930's produced a booklet filled with drawings.
Today Konstantin Kirsch has a 12-year-old living structure. He has not grown the watertight structure yet. The Holy Grail of this art form then is a watertight living tree houes. Lets call it Arbortecture. J.P. Wilkins in Sydney has a web site about Growing Homes http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Oaks/4769/ent.htm

Trees trunks will graft together. So there is no question that it can be done the question is how and who will grow the first one.

Richard Reames
Arborsmith Studios

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The best part of this idea is that it's being developed with living trees in several different places in the world today. The idea of the house grown from trees is not new at all Swedenborg and Lorber wrote about it, Wiechula in Germany in the 30's produced a booklet filled with drawings.
Today Konstantin Kirsch has a 12-year-old living structure. He has not grown the watertight structure yet. The Holy Grail of this art form then is a watertight living tree house. Lets call it Arbortecture.
J.P. Wilkins in Sydney has a web site about Growing Homes http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Oaks/4769/ent.htm

Trees trunks will graft together. So there is no question that it can be done the question is how and who will grow the first one.

Richard Reames
Arborsmith Studios
http://www.arborsmith.com

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We actually had met Paul Laffoley and discussed the Das Urpflanze Haus in depth. We differed on his advocacy for genetic modification to speed the growth process. We amicably disagreed and followed the “precautionary principle” in science. However Paul is a great heroic figure and we are truly inspired by his visions. Please check-out our botany collaborators in Israel- http://www.plantware.org/

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What a cool idea, just finished reading the article a Discovery...

I guess one of the issues is the time it takes to get a "green home", but well, that does not take away the coolness of the concept

Ec, Plant Oils A-Z

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I thought of using a tree to grow into a home and i'm currently working on a small modle using banyan tree's although i don't know much about the subject i think its really neat. the seeds i've purchased haven't spouted yet and i think with the banyon only one tree would be needed becouse its a strangler fig so it naturally sends down many trunks. any way like i've said i'm attemting only a moddle and the seeds haven't spouted yet so it will be probubly a long time before the modle is complete if every.

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