Joey Wagemans
In the world of architecture, everybody is working hard to make the city landscape more green. Green roofs and green façades are presented as the future, which is no false claim. Everybody needs green, as it improves both physical and mental health. Roofs and façades are often left unused as area, so they might as well provide greenery. However, there is another solution. Everyone could just simple move out of the city and into the green landscape.
The Green Magic Home offers a cheap home for those who want to live a life in nature. Prefabricated vaulted panels made out of polymers can be easily assembled into a home. The vaulted panels are then covered with sand, soil and plants. The houses become part of the landscape and look like fantasy homes in which hobbits live.
What exactly makes this home sustainable? First of all, the earth in which the homes are covered is actually the main material. It collaborates with the stability and strength of the framework. This is quite the feat for one of the most sustainable materials we have on this planet. It not only does that, but it also adds to the thermal mass of the building, which improves the insulation value.
What I personally enjoy about this building is how simple it looks. One might call it prehistoric, reminding us how it’s like to live as a caveman, yet is provides the needs of the modern man. Composite ducts and channels for electrical wiring and water pipes as well as mechanical ventilation ducts, can be added to the shell at any point necessary, so it’s not an empty shell that functions as a cover.
Unfortunatly, not everyone would enjoy a life on the countryside and cities will keep on existing. I hope cities will slowly turn into green landscapes that still hold all their functions close together. Perhaps trees with treehouses are the new skyscrapers, but these are plans for the far future.
