How to Grow a House

"They say only two kinds of person would expect a house to grow from the land like bamboo: kids and fools. I'm aready 32, no longer a kid, so the only possibility is that I'm a fool."

The one said this has eventually get his dream become true. He has managed to grow a house in his home village in Anhui Province, China.

The house has two stories. the first floor includes a traditional kitchen, a toilet,  and the second floor 3 bedrooms and a roof garden. It truely grows from the land, for all its materials are extremely local: the wall is made from the scree and the earth just infront of the door, mixed with 5% lime and tamped with modle; the four major beams and the second floor are fast-grown firry; the first floor is the local slate; the two-layer roof is insulated by bulrush and chaff. When not needed and pulled down, it goes back to the land under our feet, like plants.

Plants breath, so does the house. The 33cm earth wall absorbs the rain, and emit the vapour in sunshine; it keeps the temprature like the air conditioner. There is a well in the parvis, which not solely supply the drinking water. In summer, it is pumpted up to the roof garden and comesback to the gound to flush the toilet. the waste of bamboo products are burnt for heat in winter. The asphalt felt roof makes it bearable for the firry beam. All materials cost about 5000GBP.