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Back to the Trees
circletimessquare writes "This story should excite the nerd in anyone. Build a luxury treehouse! The New York Times reports on an entire subculture devoted to an idea which sounds funny at first... but really, why not? Much serious discussion in the article about the technical considerations involved in treehouse construction. Also mention of 'treesorts' at the bottom of the article (one being called 'Lothlorien Woods Hide-a-way' lol). I hunted down some links to two of the big players mentioned in the article, TreeHouse Workshop Inc. and the World Treehouse Conference. No mention as to whether or not they support Banyan VINES (sorry, I couldn't resist)."
I mean, you're basically building on something that rots. And is high up. This doesn't seem like something I would do, be it just for a cottage or something fun, or be it a house or hotel. Plus, trees get knocked over quite often; hurricanes, theunderstorms, gales, snow, etc.
Also, it seems one of these would be a massive lightning rod, if you were to wire it.
As cool as it sounds, it just doesn't seem like such a great idea. Kind of like using lighter fluid to shoot tennis balls out of coke cans. Not that I've ever done that...
No mention as to whether or not they support Banyan VINES (sorry, I couldn't resist).
Apology DECLINED.
Reminds me of G. K. Chesterton's short story "The Singular Speculation of the House-Agent" from "The Club of Queer Trades". A character (Lieutenant Drummond Keith) is involved in a scuffle and disappears. He has left his address as "The Elms, Buxton Common, near Purley, Surrey", but when some aquaintances go to look, there is no house of that name. The hero of the series, Basil Grant, then goes along and finds him in a tree-house in an Elm tree on Buxton Common. He then has the great line:
"The second [thing] is to remember that very plain literal fact always seems fantastic. If Keith had taken a little brick box of a house in Clapham with nothing but railings in front of it and had written 'The Elms' over it, you wouldn't have thought there was anything fantastic about that. Simply because it was a great blaring, swaggering lie you would have believed it.'
Project Gutenburg has the book
Now, all I need is sharks with fricking laser beams attached to their heads, and my plan for world domination will be complete!
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
One word: trebuchet.
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Some friends and i built a crazy treehouse back when we were in high school...
:)
-It had twin skylights (made from a storm door),
-The walls were made from the giant political sign they would put up in vacant lots around town. (basically just particle board),
-we had two full rooms AND
-a small porch where we could sit and look over the "valley" (there was a stream nearby, just down the hill).
-A full size door connected the two rooms, and the front room had a window.
-we also had a rope swing off the porch which was WAY cool.
it was roughly 6 feet off the ground (the tree we built it on was one of those three-trunked varieties, kinda strange.)
Needless to say, some punk kids found it like 6 months later and trashed it... of course our craftsmanship was so good, all they really did was smash out the windows!
oh well, good times.
~Matt
When I was visiting some of my in-law's relatives in China in 1997, one apartment had a section that reminded me heavily of a tree-house. It was clearly "hacked" together in bits over time with winding hall-ways. I don't know about it's safety, but it was pretty cool to walk around in. If you want to make some changes you just get some boards, nails, and a hammer. No need to call in contractors and get permits, etc. I have never seen anything like it before. I suppose you could call it a "multi-level shanty town".
Table-ized A.I.
As for weather, it sounds like they only build these in areas with mild weather. Although, I will grant you, even in San Francisco we will occasionally get a wind storm that will uproot a bunch of trees. Maybe the weight of the house makes the tree harder to uproot? I would think it would do the opposite by raising the center of gravity, but I'm not sure.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
They use extra strength bolts, and use them as sparingly as possible, spaced at least a foot apart. They also claim that the trees will adapt to the house, growing to support it rather than putting pressure on it. I'm not 100% sure if I believe that last bit, and clearly this is not what you want to build if you want a house you can pass on to your grandkids. Still, I think it's obvious that they know a hell of a lot more about building treehouses than you or I do.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
So, I grew up in an underground house, and it's actually a mixed blessing. On the minus side, you have to mow your roof, it can be freakin difficult to move furniture into/outof the house (unless you have an access garage or elevator), and people generally think you're nuts. On the plus side, underground houses tend to be fire/earthquake/tornado/blizzard proof, and the utility bills are rather low, because of solar and geothermal energy, and you also get to live in a hobbit-hole of sorts. The biggest problem, however, is that there is no market for underground houses, because Muggles/Sleepers/Luddites don't understand the concept... the best real-estate appraisal we can get is about $100K, because we can't get the house un-registered as a "basement house"... never mind the fact that it's got marble, custom stone work throughout, can withstand most any natural/unnatural disaster, etc. We've sunk way more money into the house than we're ever going to get out of it.
If you ever find/buy a dormant volcano, contact me and/or my brother, and we'll build you the undergound volcano fortress. We got the architectural blueprints already...
Anyhow, in an attempt to make sure that this post isn't ranked as a troll or flame-bait, I'll point out the story of the wolf and the three pigs who made their houses out of straw, wood, and brick. Better to make your house out of brick/stone than out of a treehouse, it seems to me...
I've always thought of tree houses as an insult to injury. First, you're wounding the tree, that's ok. But then you're attaching another dead tree to it. It's almost like beating someone with their own arm. The trees in the forest must riducule thier members with dead trees nailed to them. (its funny...laugh)
Cthulhu Saves.
Gentlemen (and Ladies),
m e. html
I'm surprized at you. I would think that comments would be slightly more positive on this topic.
As to the issues raised I can directly address some of them.
First - I have actually stayed in one of the treehouses in question. Quite a pleasant experience actually.
Second - I am disabled and partnered with a service dog (Ted).
http://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/treesort/ho
The treehouse was the peacock lodge. So named for the incredibly detailed carved wooden door. It was quite posh, having electricity, running water and a dorm sized refrigerator. We stayed in late October/early November(post season actually) Overnight temps ran to the mid teens(F). Ted & I were quite cozy.
As to the engineering, these folks are for the most part professionals and their engineering is top drawer and very well documented. Michael has had numerous run ins with the local planning commission and has prevailed primarirly because his structures are over engineered. If you closely examine the links in this story you'll find that Micheal freely uses Outriggers (Poles supporting the outer edges of the structure).
As to the handicapped issue - Michael's resort is not in any way handicapped accessible (although someone with a limited mobility disabilty such as myself can manage quite well) Due to a restrictive county goverment Michael is not allowed to rent lodging in the treehouses to the general public at large, only to friends and family. (Michael - while a bit gruff, is really quite easy to make friends with). Clearly putting the ADA burden squarely on the shoulders of the local goverment. Also these structures are more like private residences than a multi unit structure such as a hotel and as such would be exempt from ADA (as I understand it) in much the same way you and I are not required to have handicapped accessible ramps in installed in our homes.
As to the general question about the tree(s) themselves - Tree selection is a critical part of the pre-build engineering. Some trees are simply not suitable. Those that are are strongly rooted and in generally grow up and out not around, particuliarily at the site selected for structure supports. Also a technique developed by these folks allows for an ingeneous free floating support. These folks LOVE trees. Their second order of business is to protect and care for the trees themselves. The first order of business is safety of their structures. Something rather reassuring when you realize that some of their structures are built as high as one hundred and twenty-five feet off the ground.
As the general question of accessibility - several treehouses have been built with some kind of an elevator. Nor is it strictly a requirement that such an arrangement be neccessary. Take a close look at Disney's Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. Access can be arranged via a ramp from a nearby ridge for example.
Now as to the question of a Network connection. I have personal knowledge of at least two people who are using WiFi in their treehouses. One has wired their treehouse for electricity and the other uses a battery powered laptop.