On the tiny island of Læsø in Denmark, seaweed—always readily available—was long used as a building material for homes and other construction projects. Over time the practice fell out of fashion, and where there were once hundreds, only 20 kelp buildings remain. So architecture firm Vandkunsten and developer Realdania Byg took it upon themselves to reintroduce this sustainable practice with the Modern Seaweed House, a stunning holiday home that uses the ocean's plants for the exterior, and wood for the interior.
"Seaweed is at the same time very old and very 'just-in-time', because it is in many ways the ultimate sustainable material,"
Realdania Byg's Jørgen Søndermark told
Dezeen. "It reproduces itself every year in the sea, it comes ashore without any effort from humans, and it is dried on nearby fields by sun and wind. It insulates just as well as mineral insulation, it is non-toxic and fireproof, and it has an expected life of more than 150 years!"
In fact, the Seaweed House is calculated to have a negative carbon footprint. Using seaweed for both insulation and roofing material, causes the amount of CO2 accumulated within the house to exceed what is emitted while building and producing the house. So the Modern Seaweed House not only looks really cool—while keeping tradition alive—its also great for the environment. Now to figure out how to swing a trip to Læsø.
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