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TREETENTS And House Trees
In The Houses of Iszm, a 1954 novel by Jack Vance, he describes the dwelling places of the Iszic:
Imagine my surprise when I ran across the TREETENTS of Dre Wapenaar.
[There were] houses with buttressed pods for the high-gravity worlds of Cleo 8 and Martinon's Fort, and loose complex houses with pods like balloons for Fei, where gravity was only half that of Iszm... There was a tough-trunked tree supporting a single turretlike pod, with lanceolate foliage spiking outward at the base...
(Read more about the house trees)
(TREETENTS)
At a speech to the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado, Dre Wapenaar gave this story behind the pod-like tents:
"The story of my tents as they relate to campsites, however, started with the TREETENTS which were originally designed for the ROAD ALERT GROUP in ENGLAND. This group of activists fight against the excessive constructing of highways through forests. During their protest they cover themselves and hide and live in the trees to fight as long as possible against the rushing violence of the chain sawers. The TREETENTS would provide a comfortable place for them to stay during their habitation of the forest and prevent the trees from being cut down.Even though I designed the tents for use by the ROAD ALERT GROUP the project never happened. Before I finished it, a representative from a campsite saw the drawings of the TREETENTS and convinced me to sell them this project. It was a huge success; and is still in use today.
Two adults and two children can sleep on the main floor which is about 9 feet in diameter.
The form for these tents naturally developed itself, when I hung a circular platform with a rope on the side of a tree. My inspiration for the shape was not the dewdrop. Form followed function."
Read more about Dre Wapenaar's Tentprojects; saw the picture at WMMNA.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/23/2005)
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