Today, let’s go to Marknesse, a village in the Netherlands. There, the housing group Mercatus and the architecture studio ORGA created 12 affordable rental homes. The most surprising part is the chimneys. They are not for smoke. The wooden chimneys are built as safe homes for bats. (mercatus.nl)

These homes are wooden homes, and about 75 percent of the materials are biobased. In simple words, that means many parts come from natural materials. The roofs and outer walls use wood, and the insulation uses wood fiber instead of materials like glass wool or stone wool. ORGA also says that plant-based materials take in CO2 while they grow, so using more of them can help lower a building’s climate impact. (orga-architect.nl)

The project tries to help both people and nature. The homes use a heat pump and solar panels. Rainwater is stored under the homes and used for toilets and washing machines. There are also bird nest boxes on the walls, and the storage sheds have small green roofs. Even the mailboxes were made from leftover wood. (buildingbalance.eu)

And this is not just an idea on paper. Tenants have been living in these homes since June 2025. In May 2026, ArchDaily introduced the project to a wider audience as a model for future housing that aims to cut CO2 and use fewer fossil-based materials. So this Dutch wooden housing project gives us a nice picture of the future: homes for people, and homes for bats, in the same place. (centrumhout.nl)