diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf088f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+examples/site-with-haml-templates/sample-template.haml.php
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b137995
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "examples/site-with-haml-templates/mthaml"]
+	path = examples/site-with-haml-templates/mthaml
+	url = https://github.com/arnaud-lb/MtHaml
diff --git a/examples/site-with-haml-templates/.htaccess b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/.htaccess
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..bab0219
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/.htaccess
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+RewriteEngine on
+RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
+RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
+RewriteRule ^(.*)\?*$ index.php?__route__=/$1 [L,QSA]
diff --git a/examples/site-with-haml-templates/index.php b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/index.php
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..c0de50c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/index.php
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+<?php
+chdir('..');
+require_once '../src/Epi.php';
+require_once 'mthaml/lib/MtHaml/Autoloader.php';
+MtHaml\Autoloader::register();
+
+Epi::setPath('base', '../src');
+Epi::setPath('view', 'site-with-haml-templates');
+Epi::init('route','template-mthaml');
+
+/*
+ * This is a sample page whch uses EpiCode.
+ * There is a .htaccess file which uses mod_rewrite to redirect all requests to index.php while preserving GET parameters.
+ * The $_['routes'] array defines all uris which are handled by EpiCode.
+ * EpiCode traverses back along the path until it finds a matching page.
+ *  i.e. If the uri is /foo/bar and only 'foo' is defined then it will execute that route's action.
+ * It is highly recommended to define a default route of '' for the home page or root of the site (yoursite.com/).
+ */
+getRoute()->get('/', array('MyClass', 'MyMethod'));
+getRoute()->run(); 
+
+/*
+ * ******************************************************************************************
+ * Define functions and classes which are executed by EpiCode based on the $_['routes'] array
+ * ******************************************************************************************
+ */
+class MyClass
+{
+  static public function MyMethod()
+  {
+    $params = array();
+    $params['heading'] = 'Hello friends!';
+    $params['friends'] = array('John', 'Mike', 'Luke', 'Jack', 'Spike');
+
+    getTemplate()->display('sample-template.haml', $params);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/examples/site-with-haml-templates/mthaml b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/mthaml
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..ccc214b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/mthaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit ccc214b053c1f74aa6250f7cdb5b2609003c59b0
diff --git a/examples/site-with-haml-templates/sample-template.haml b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/sample-template.haml
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..881ba72
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/site-with-haml-templates/sample-template.haml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+%h1 = $heading
+%ul
+  - foreach($friends as $name)
+    %li Hello #{$name}!
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/Epi.php b/src/Epi.php
index 3d79304..e45c62b 100644
--- a/src/Epi.php
+++ b/src/Epi.php
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ class Epi
     'session-apc' => array('base', 'EpiSession.php', 'EpiSession_Apc.php'),
     'session-memcached' => array('base', 'EpiSession.php', 'EpiSession_Memcached.php'),
     'template' => array('base', 'EpiTemplate.php'),
+    'template-mthaml' => array('base', 'EpiTemplate.php', 'EpiTemplate_MtHaml.php')
   );
   private static $included = array();
 
diff --git a/src/EpiException.php b/src/EpiException.php
index bf7095f..58c2f02 100644
--- a/src/EpiException.php
+++ b/src/EpiException.php
@@ -29,3 +29,4 @@ class EpiDatabaseException extends EpiException{}
 class EpiDatabaseConnectionException extends EpiDatabaseException{}
 class EpiDatabaseQueryException extends EpiDatabaseException{}
 class EpiSessionException extends EpiException{}
+class EpiTemplateException extends EpiException{}
diff --git a/src/EpiSession.php b/src/EpiSession.php
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/src/EpiTemplate.php b/src/EpiTemplate.php
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 67e127d..5df18bb
--- a/src/EpiTemplate.php
+++ b/src/EpiTemplate.php
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 <?php
-class EpiTemplate
+class EpiTemplate implements EpiTemplateInterface
 {
+  const PHP_EXT = 'EpiTemplate_Extendable';
+  const HAML    = 'EpiTemplate_MtHaml';
+  private static $instances, $employ;
+
   /**
    * EpiRoute::display('/path/to/template.php', $array);
    * @name  display
@@ -98,16 +102,58 @@ public function jsonResponse($data)
     header('Content-type: application/x-json');
     echo $json;
   }
-}
 
+  /*
+   * @param  type  required
+   * @params optional
+   */
+  public static function getInstance()
+  {
+    $params = func_get_args();
+    $hash   = md5(json_encode($params));
+    if(isset(self::$instances[$hash]))
+      return self::$instances[$hash];
 
-function getTemplate()
-{
-  static $template;
-  if($template)
-    return $template;
+    $type = $params[0];
+    if(!isset($params[1]))
+      $params[1] = array();
+    self::$instances[$hash] = new $type($params[1]);
+    self::$instances[$hash]->hash = $hash;
+    return self::$instances[$hash];
+  }
 
-  $template = new EpiTemplate();
-  return $template;
+  /*
+   * @param  $const
+   * @params optional
+   */
+  public static function employ(/*$const*/)
+  {
+    if(func_num_args() === 1)
+      self::$employ = func_get_arg(0);
+    elseif(func_num_args() > 1)
+      self::$employ = func_get_args();
+
+    return self::$employ;
+  }
+}
+
+interface EpiTemplateInterface
+{
+  public function get($key = null);
+  public function display($template = null, $vars = null);
+  public function json($data);
+  public function jsonResponse($data);
 }
 
+function getTemplate()
+{
+  $employ = EpiTemplate::employ();
+  $class = array_shift($employ);
+  if(class_exists($class)) {
+    return EpiTemplate::getInstance($class, $employ);
+  } else if(class_exists(EpiTemplate::PHP_EXT)) {
+    return EpiTemplate::getInstance(EpiTemplate::PHP_EXT);
+  } else {
+    return new EpiTemplate();
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/EpiTemplate_Extendable.php b/src/EpiTemplate_Extendable.php
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a02ea7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/EpiTemplate_Extendable.php
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<?php
+class EpiTemplate_Extendable extends EpiTemplate implements EpiTemplateInterface
+{
+  public function display($template = null, $vars = null)
+  {
+    $def_vars = Epi::getSetting('template_default_vars');
+
+    if (is_array($def_vars)) {
+      $vars = array_merge($def_vars, $vars);
+    }
+
+    if (array_key_exists('_template', $vars)) {
+      $_template = $vars['_template'];
+    }
+
+    $_content = $this->get($template, $vars);
+
+    if (is_file(Epi::getPath('view').'/'.$_template) || is_file($_template)) {
+      $vars['_content'] = $_content;
+      return parent::display($_template, $vars);
+    } else {
+      echo $_content;
+    }
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/EpiTemplate_MtHaml.php b/src/EpiTemplate_MtHaml.php
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..fc6eaf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/EpiTemplate_MtHaml.php
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+<?php
+class EpiTemplate_MtHaml extends EpiTemplate implements EpiTemplateInterface
+{
+  private $haml;
+
+  public function __construct() {
+    $this->haml = new MtHaml\Environment('php');
+  }
+
+  public function display($template = null, $vars = null)
+  {
+    $template = $this->getCompiledFile($template);
+    return parent::display($template, $vars);
+  }
+
+  public function get($template = null, $vars = null)
+  {
+    $template = $this->getCompiledFile($template);
+    return parent::display($template, $vars);
+  }
+
+  private function getCompiledFile($template) {
+    $template = Epi::getPath('view').'/'.$template;
+    $complied = $template.'.php';
+    $hamlCode = file_get_contents($template);
+
+    // no need to compile if already compiled and up to date
+    if (!file_exists($complied) || filemtime($complied) != filemtime($template)) {
+
+        $phpCode = $this->haml->compileString($hamlCode, $template);
+
+        $tempnam = tempnam(dirname($template), basename($template));
+        file_put_contents($tempnam, $phpCode);
+        rename($tempnam, $complied);
+        touch($complied, filemtime($template));
+    }
+
+    return $complied;
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file