Paper Houses

Brick, concrete, steel... the materials of choice within the construction industry. No wonder, they have high strength and durability. But, composed of clay, sand, lime, stone and ore they are mined from the earth, at great expense and with finite quantity.

By contrast, the human population is growing at an exponential rate. The need for housing and all of the resources that go along with it is growing at the same rate. As humans overrun the landscape, the world is transitioning from a rural natural environment to a man made urban hardscape. Raw materials stripped from the terrain are depleting without thought of consequence. How long can this be sustained?

As if the problem is not difficult enough, consider the houses already built. Humans thrive on change, we are not content with anything. Permanence is an illusion. Using everything for a time, then discarding it when we grow tired and ready to move on.

It is not abnormal, nature is based on the same. The stacked stones we leave behind soon grow over. Unfortunately, the greatest drain on the planet's resources is our propensity for change, at a far greater burden than the original construction itself.

So why not be honest with ourselves and embrace our desire for perpetual new?

The future of architecture is paper houses. Materials that are lightweight, pliable, adaptive. With a cue from nature, homes will be grown (taking root in the ground, rather than mining it), a flexibility to accommodate changing families, tastes or household incomes.

No longer of the heavy, static brick and mortar with a tendency to decay and crack - the house of the future must be truly organic, living, breathing, growing naturally to keep pace with a being out of balance.