A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a tree house for grownups — a proper home constructed almost entirely from living trees and plants.

The "Fab Tree Hab" uses an ancient gardening technique called pleaching — where live tree branches are woven together to form lattice structures — to literally grow a building from the ground up. …

While such biotecture may seem far-fetched, the team says the tools to build a tree house already exist.

Bob, an ecological engineer and designer of the house's innards, calls his creation a "bioshelter," a term coined in the '60s by the New Alchemy Institute, the sustainable-living research group of its day. The idea behind it was to emulate a living organism, "where energy efficiency is synonymous with survival." …

As the house plan evolved, what emerged was a design that showcased both the Crosbys' areas of expertise: Lou Anne's as an interior designer who likes simplicity, openness and curved walls, and Bob's work with the concept of biological architecture, or "biotecture."

My research of the last twenty-five years shows that living, productive plant habitat is possible. Self-growing, energy-harvesting, air-delivered biotectonic plant shelter is possible if you want it. Do you really want to waste your life in some air-conditioned high-rise? Instead you can become a low-rise gardener-biotect (house farmer). Very economical vegetal houses (biotecture), plant villages, and plant cities (Biovilles) have been developed for single and multi-story growth.