The ultimate in environmentally friendly housing might be a structure made partially of water. There is such a house in Kecskemet, Hungary. That's near where the architect who designed it grew up.
Matyas Gutai, PhD got his inspiration to build the structure from open air hot baths in Tokyo, where despite the cold temperature outside, it was kept comfortably warm inside.
Plans are already in the works for additional "liquid technology" buildings in Japan and Taiwan.
Gutai built his test house south of Budapest with steel and water panels and explains the research here.
Here's how it works:
- Water is trapped between the inner layers.
- It is mixed with natural solvents so it will not freeze.
- If one of the water panels breaks it will be sealed by one of the other surrounding ones.
It's unclear just how much building a liquid house would cost. Gutai has building partners in Europe. He doesn't have any yet in the United States.
He says it is possible to take a current structure, strip out the insides, and retro-fit it with "liquid engineering."
