terreform one's home alive proposes a method to grow homes from native trees

HOME ALIVE IS MADE FROM LIVING WOODY PLANTS AND OLD GROWTH TREES

nonprofit art, architecture, and urban design research group, terreform one, continues with its endeavor to combat the extinction of all planetary species through pioneering acts of design. dubbed home alive, their latest project aims to illuminate the environmental possibilities of using living building materials in our future homes.

made from grafted living woody plants and old growth trees, home alive explores the idea of living architecture, a movement which looks at organic ways of building, using materials that behave in a way resembling living organisms. 

images by terreform one

A HOME THAT BECOMES INDISTINCT AND FITS SYMBIOTICALLY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT

home alive by terraform one is made with novel ELMs — engineered living materials. composed entirely or partly of living cells, these types of materials can self-assemble via a bottom-up process. to grow, they extract energy from the environment and adapt their morphology and function depending on different environmental stimuli. what’s great about them is that they feature properties that non-living materials lack, like self-regeneration, environmental adaptation, longevity, and sustainability.

in this experimental dwelling, the team of architects overturns anthropocentric doctrines and subsume human life within the terrestrial environs. the idea is to create a home that becomes indistinct and fits itself symbiotically into the surrounding ecosystem.

‘this home concept is intended to replace the outdated design solutions at habitat for humanity,’ said terraform one. ‘we propose a method to grow homes from native trees/ woody plants. a living structure is grafted into shape with prefabricated computer numeric controlled (CNC) reusable scaffolds. therefore, we enable dwellings to be fully integrated into an ecological community.’

home alive is made from grafted living woody plants and old growth trees

the living structure changes throughout the years

thirty years after construction

forty years after construction

model

diagram

project info:

name: home alive

design: terreform one

status: under construction
location: new york
additional credits: terreform one: mitchell joachim, vivian kuan, nina anker, sky achitoff, mamoun nukumanu, iyad abou gaida, connor lambrecht, nicholas gervasi, vivian jiang, robin stiefel, lisa wood richardson