Modern teahouse heated with compost

A Japanese architecture firm has come up with a neat idea for eco-friendly teahouses — it has little compartments in the surrounding wall that can generate heat via compost, so you don't get cold when you're sitting inside. The best thing about it might be its name: Comploo. From Inhabitat:

To feed the composter, garden waste, food scraps or other compost materials can be dropped in through a door at the top of each bin. A system of sealed ducts runs through each of the bins, and as the air circulates within the walls, the decaying compost warms it. This heated air is in turn emitted through a central vent that releases into the structure's interior. Occupants can comfortably sit along a circular bench surrounding the heat source, and enjoy the ambient natural light permeating through the transparent dome roof above.

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I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

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Simeon

There’s a composting site in a big park nearby to me, the huge heaps there are always steaming. Grass clippings in particular can get seriously hot in certain conditions. It’s just leaves and grass and so doesn’t smell at all bad. If you had to sleep rough, it probably wouldn’t be a bad choice.

This concept makes good sense. Insulation, heating and waste disposal all in one. Add a few photovoltaics for electricity, some solar water heating for washing and nighttime heating. You’d have a pretty cosy 24hr off grid environment.
Anonymous

I wrote an article about why I go to the trouble of composting. You can see it here: http://cathisgarden.com/2011/02/why-do-i-compost/

I never thought about heating the house. I should SO move the pile into my house! Brilliant!
Anonymous

During the winter I see feral cats sitting on my compost pile so it must be doing something.

The problem with this teahouse is it looks like the discarded packaging from a fast food happy meal. Do you really want this plastic monument in a park setting?
Anonymous

I’ve worked with large compost piles for years. The core temp can often be 125 degrees F and higher. The heat peaks and dwindles as anaerobic and aerobic microbes work things out. This idea will be of no use- is in fact a poor photoshop job as one guy pointed out, and will never see the market because it is unworkable in its current form. It isn’t news, it isn’t even good theory.
Anonymous

I never know compost could do this. This looks like the future of housing by the end of the oil era.
Anonymous

The compost smell won’t get in the compartment because the ducts that transfer the heat are sealed. It works like a radiator in that the compost is the heating element, warming the air in the sealed tubes. Not exactly the most efficient way to transfer heat however..
Nelson.C

I think poo is often a minor part of compost, if it is present at all. Certainly my mum doesn’t put it in her compost.
- Anonymous
  
  I agree with Nelson.C that ‘poo is often a minor part of compost, if it is present at all.’ I think the same can often be said of accuracy and BB posting headlines.
Anonymous

I don’t see any indication that feces or manure is required or even recommended. Maybe this is a misunderstanding with regard to the name, which seems to be an admittedly rather awkward portmanteau of “compost” and “igloo”.
Darryl

Ok, so it says “sealed ducts”, but it also says “as the air circulates within the walls, the decaying compost warms it” so I can’t get away from the thought that sitting inside of this thing is going to be a smelly experience.
- Anonymous
  
  Darryl…..When you sit in you car you don’t smell the antifreeze that is circulating in the system that heats you. This would work the same way…no poop smell.
Stefan Jones

The SyFy channel will probably buy a few of these to use as Cheap Movie of the Week props.
chromecow

If memory serves, there are two ways in which standard compost can break down, aerobically, and anaerobically.

Aerobic decomposition has a nice, earthy smell.

If you don’t turn over your compost, anaerobic decay kicks in, which is the smelly, slimy (and slower) version.

So, turn those piles. The cup of tea you save may be your own.
Anonymous

This is an interesting concept. The only fault I see is that most compost is available when its already warm out. So using it as a heating element is unnecessary. Mid/late fall might be the only time.
Anonymous

Nelson C. is right – “poo” requires special handling and is not normally composted with the rest of your garbage. Usually it’s just vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and so on.
Anonymous

I’m with Darryl. Compost generally isn’t a super unpleasent odour, but it’s definately strong enough that you won’t really taste the tea.
ZippySpincycle

Trust me, you don’t want to know how the jacuzzi works.
SamSam

Looks interesting, but I wonder how much it actually heats. I have a family-sized composter in my back yard, and it doesn’t heat up that much. It probably produces a fair bit of energy in the long run, but the actual temperature at any one time is only a degree or two above the outside. Maybe if this thing were able to store the energy produced, and release it only when people were inside?

Anyway, so did they do any calculations on the heat produced, or is this just the work of a “designer?”

(…and is that a bad ‘shop job or what?)
ranomatic

I followed the link to the designer’s site. Why are architects so fascinated by Flash?
Darren Garrison

Wow, based on tea, filled with poo. It’s the teabaggers movement!
Aloisius

Composting greenhouses have been tried in the past. They have the added benefit that the compost can be used not only to heat the greenhouse, but as soil for the plants you grow. Composting also raises the co2 level which is also good for a number of plants.

As for how much heat it generates… well, compost itself can get to 160 F with proper aerobic composting. The greenhouses they set up back in the 80′s were able to maintain temperatures of 60 F when it was well below freezing outside.
hisdevineshadow

Nelson C. is right – “poo” requires special handling and is not normally composted with the rest of your garbage. Usually it’s just vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and so on.

This brings to mind one of my favorite conversations between Magnum and Higgins in which Higgins is explaining a task to Magnum involving “recycled vegetation” to which Magnum asks “Recycled how?” and Higgins responses “Through a cow.”