Israeli Science: Growing Your Own Playground?

Update (7/3): Listen to this post, courtesy of Bnarrator!

While most playgrounds on planet Earth are built for the amusement of kids, a few Israeli's are planning on creating one grown to help bring a greener awareness towards future generations.

(Israel 21^st Century) Plantware's CEO Gorden Glazer sees the first home prototype ready in about 10 years. Currently the company has taken its patented methods and built park benches, playgrounds, streetlamps and gates - all from trees.

"We are not artists looking for fame," says Glazer, who is motivated mainly by environmental concerns. He tells ISRAEL21c: "We want to create a message that's accessible to as many people as possible." [...]

They understood that they had found a way for growing soft roots, roots that could be eventually manipulated into becoming specific structures.

Today with a patent on the process, Plantware, in operation since 2002, is the first company in the world to take on the challenge of designing furniture, park benches, bus stops and even city dwellings from living trees.

The idea of "growing structures" was originally conceived by Axel Erlandson, who envisioned shaping plants into weird and odd shapes.

While Plantware has been successful in creating small items such as benches, their overall goal seems to be creating playgrounds--and if successful, we may see people demanding "organic houses" in the (mid-distant) future.

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