<
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/could-eelgrass-be-the-next-big-bio-based-building-material-180985203/>
"Henning Johansen used both hands to twist a pile of silver, ribbony eelgrass
into a boa fit for the Little Mermaid. On this late August afternoon on Laeso,
an island 12 miles off the northeast coast of Denmark, he walked his new plant
rope over to a nearby mushroom-shaped hut and laid it on top, repeating the
process until it began to resemble a roof.
In three years, this seagrass, which washes up in droves along Denmark’s
endless shoreline, will harden and form air pockets like papier-mâché to retain
its structure, repel rain, and resist fire and rot. This centuries-old eelgrass
thatching technique will restore and protect the historic windswept home framed
with the wood of shipwrecks for another 350 years.
Thirty-six homes—the world’s last topped with a traditional eelgrass roof—all
sit here in the North Sea on this Danish island. They’d be straw if Johansen
hadn’t spoken up a decade ago—that’s how time-consuming this lost art is. A
single roof takes three people two months to complete. That’s 90 tons of
eelgrass spun into rope, wrapped around the top of each timber frame and piled
on. The roofs are also why Laeso made the short list for UNESCO World Heritage
Site status last fall.
The former king of Denmark Frederik IX would’ve been proud—in 1962, he advised
the small community of Laeso to preserve these roofs, Johansen recalls.
“Eelgrass was once used all over [the world] to build houses, but the only
women in the world who did it lived on Laeso,” he says."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
