Eco Lego Houses

A Germany company has come up with an eco house that you put together in blocks – like Lego.

The HIB System is an eco-friendly home design that’s soundproof, insulated and energy-efficient without the use of any chemicals or toxins. The modular blocks are made from naturally cut local Black Forest pine and there’s a wide range of natural insulation materials including wood chips, clay, mussel shells and pea shingle gravel.

The idea is that buyers put the HIB-System homes together themselves. Each block weighs no more than 25kg each and once put together the house is allegedly earthquake and stormproof. All sounds pretty good, I’ve no idea how things like the plumbing or electrics work so you may need to get some professional help.

Spotted via: Springwise

Recycled Homes Made Loofahs and Corn Husks

Keeping your finger on the pulse of developments within the green world gets harder and harder with more and more sites and information out there. One useful little email I get in my box every week is from Springwise. Generally it has nothing to do with being green, but with innovation and trends. It does however, occasionally marry the two subjects and report on green innovation.

That’s how I found out about houses made from loofahs and corn husks. This is being developed in Paraguay where there is a desperate need for housing. A ’social activist’ called Elsa Zaldivar has found a way to combine the loofah (yep, the same thing you find in the bath), corn and palm husks, and recycled plastics into lightweight panels that can be used to make houses and even furniture.

The panels can be made into varying degrees of thickness and colours and if broken can be melted down and made into new ones. Handy.

Thanks to money from the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, tests are already underway and you can find out more about it here.