A tiny house built mostly from straw is drawing attention for flipping one of childhood's most familiar stories on its head.
A team at Princeton University built a 150-square-foot tiny house outside Hudson, New York, using compressed strawboard for much of the structure and insulation, according to The New York Times.
In a warming world, it turns out the Three Little Pigs may have picked the wrong home.
"The straw house sequesters carbon; the wood house is pretty good; but the brick house is a carbon bomb that actually leads to climate disaster," architecture professor Paul Lewis said, per the Times.
The project is getting notice in part because it transforms an agricultural byproduct into something unexpectedly refined.
Straw is often treated as waste and burned, but in this case, it was compressed into structural panels; topped with a thatched roof; and paired with large windows, a sleeping loft, and a kitchen.
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Photos of the home show a storybook-like exterior alongside a clean, modern interior. The strawboard is left exposed instead of being covered with plaster or wood, making it easy to see how the structure was assembled almost like a kit.
Buildings and construction account for roughly 40% of global carbon dioxide pollution, meaning cleaner building materials could make a significant difference.
"Experts have shown that the amount of carbon sequestered in straw grown worldwide on an annual basis is roughly equivalent to the carbon emissions of the concrete industry," Lewis told the Times.
The tiny house also incorporates other sustainable features. Heating and cooling come from a heat pump, while power is supplied from an on-site battery system and solar panels mounted on a nearby trailer.
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While wood can also store carbon, researchers say relying too heavily on timber creates additional environmental pressures.
"We're trying to come up with alternatives to timber so that there's not so much pressure on deforestation," said Patty Hazle, who led the project, per the Times.
The design demonstrates how sustainable architecture can improve everyday living while reducing environmental impact.
"It was a cool thing to try," RMI manager of carbon-free buildings Chris Magwood told the Times, noting that simpler construction methods could make such homes easier to scale.
Architecture graduate student Nolan Hill said assembling the structure felt a bit like putting together Ikea furniture.
"It seems like something that people could do by themselves," he said, per the Times. "I could see it popping up in people's backyards, for maybe a mother-in-law house."
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