Green Building

An idea came to me in a dream the other night… What if someone set up a frame of branches and trained climbing vines to grow over them? One could create a living building without using tools or consuming resources. It just would require some patience.

I do not know which plant would work best for this, though. I initially considered English ivy (Hedera helix), but I see two problems. First, it might not fill in thick enough to serve as an effective barrier against the elements. Second, it does not support itself very well – it typically either grows along the ground or physically attaches to a surface to climb. Ideally, we would want a plant strong enough to hold itself up if we remove the supports (or they rot away over time).

Does anyone know of a plant that might work well?