Drevograd
Glass-walled modular dwellings arranged around mature trees and a planted pedestrian path

Can we build cities on trees?

Drevograd is a proposal for modular habitats integrated with the living grid of tree plantations. Its feasibility has not yet been tested.

Early concept · Feasibility untested

Cities with a longer tomorrow

Fig. 1Tree-integrated residential volumes along a planted walkway.
AI-generated concept image.

01 · Demand

Would people want to live there?

The concept only matters if tree-integrated neighbourhoods can become places people actively choose: restorative as a park, compact and useful as a city block.

  • Would it feel like a park and a city block at once?
  • Would people choose it?
  • Would they pay to live there?
Explore demand questions
Aerial view of modular housing arranged among mature pine trees
Fig. 2A possible relationship between modular housing and a plantation of mature trees.AI-generated concept image.
Elevated glass and timber building volumes arranged around mature trees
Fig. 3A speculative tree-integrated building arrangement with trunks continuing through the volume.AI-generated concept image.

02 · Structure

How much building could living trees safely support?

The answer depends on species, age, geometry, movement, connections and time. No tree-integrated load-bearing arrangement has yet been validated.

  • Which tree species and ages could participate?
  • Which lattice could remain stable over time?
  • How many storeys, if any, could be supported?
Explore structure questions

03 · Delivery

Could it be built and maintained affordably?

Research must test whether modular components, host land, regulation and long-term maintenance can form a viable delivery model.

  • Can modularity reduce time and cost?
  • Can local timber be used responsibly?
  • Would municipalities support experimental development?
Explore delivery questions
A prefabricated timber-and-glass dwelling module being lifted into a frame among mature trees
Fig. 4A speculative modular assembly sequence intended to make construction and access visible.AI-generated concept image.
Food-growing beds, native planting and a water rill beneath elevated tree-integrated dwellings
Fig. 5A speculative productive understory combining cultivation, habitat and rainwater movement.AI-generated concept image.

04 · Ecology

Can buildings and productive ecosystems thrive together?

A credible system would need buildings, forestry, cultivation and local resource cycles to strengthen rather than diminish one another.

  • Can wind become useful local energy?
  • Could food grow beneath or between buildings?
  • Can water and nutrients circulate safely at local scale?
Explore ecology questions