Tree house

Tree House

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Tree house

Tree houses, treehouses, or tree forts, are buildings constructed among the branch

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural Limb connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree . Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs.....
es, around or next to the trunk

Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main structural member of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots....
of one or more mature tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s, and are raised above the ground. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation or as temporary retreats.

houses are an option for building eco-friendly facilities in remote forest areas, because they do not require a clearing of a certain area of forest.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Tree house'

Start a new discussion about 'Tree house'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Tree houses, treehouses, or tree forts, are buildings constructed among the branch

Branch

Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main structural member of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots....
of one or more mature tree

TREE

Shelter

Tree houses are an option for building eco-friendly facilities in remote forest areas, because they do not require a clearing of a certain area of forest. The wildlife, climate and illumination on ground level in areas of dense close-canopy

Canopy (forest)

Canopy refers to the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by Crown_.Canopy is also the term for the upper layer or zone of a forest, formed by Crown_ and including other biological organisms ....
forest is not well suited for human habitation. In some parts of the tropics

Tropics

The Tropics, seated in the equatorial regions of the world, are limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately 23?26' N latitude, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23?26' S latitude....
, ordinary houses are built in trees or elevated on stilts

Stilts

Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person or structure to stand at a certain distance above the ground. Walking stilts are poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, or straps to attach them to the legs, for the purpose of walking while elevated above a normal height....
to keep the living quarters above hazards at ground level, and to keep the occupants and any stored food out of reach of scavenging

Scavenger

Scavenging, or necrophagy, is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrion that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species....
animals.

The Korowai

Korowai

The Korowai, also called the Kolufo, are a people of southeastern Papua . Their numbers are very roughly estimated at about 3,000. Until the 1970s, they were unaware of the existence of any people besides themselves and some immediately neighboring villages....
, a Papuan tribe in the southeast of Irian Jaya, live in tree houses, some nearly 40 metres (130 ft) high, as protection against a tribe of neighbouring head-hunters

Headhunting

Headhunting is the practice of taking a person's head after killing him or her. Headhunting was practiced during the pre-colonial era in parts of China, India, Nigeria, Nuristan Province, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, and the Amazon Basin, as well as among certain tribes of th...
, the Citak.

Materials

Tree houses can be built with a wide range of materials. Wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
is commonly used for structural parts and cladding

Cladding

Cladding is the covering of one material with another. It has different meanings depending on the context....
due to its strength, light weight and low cost. Steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.14% by weight , depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten....
is used for brackets, cables and bolts, including specialized tree bolts capable of supporting up to 6000 pounds (2700 kg). Builders of tree houses sometimes use recycled materials or parts, such as reclaimed window frames, doors and used lumber. One motivation for this is to promote sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
by re-using resources. Reclaiming materials can also save money compared with buying new materials and can add a retro

Retro

Retro is a term used to describe, denote or classify culturally outdated or aged trends, modes, or fashions, from the overall postmodern past, but have since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again....
or abstract

Abstract

Abstract may refer to:* Abstract * Abstract * Abstract art* Abstract objectSee also* Abstraction ...
style to the design of the structure. Fabrics can be used to produce non-rigid temporary structures that are more like tree tent

Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of textile or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope....
s than tree houses.

Popularity

Since the mid-1990s, recreational tree houses have enjoyed a rise in popularity in countries such as the USA and parts of Europe. This has been due to increased disposable income, better technology for builders, research into safe building practices and an increased interest in environmental issues, particularly sustainable living

Sustainable living

Sustainable living refers to a specific lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual or society use of the Earth natural resource. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet ....
. This has in turn provided a demand for businesses which cover all the building and design work for their clients.

Tree house building companies

There are over thirty businesses in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
that specialize in building tree houses of various degrees of permanence and sophistication, from children's play structures to fully functioning homes.

Building regulations

Many areas of the world have no specific planning laws for treehouses, so the legal issues can be confusing to both the builder and the local planning departments. Treehouses can be exempt, partially regulated or fully regulated depending on the locale.

Exemption

In some cases tree houses are given exemption from normal building regulations, as they are not considered to be a building in the normal sense of the word. An exemption may be given to a builder if the treehouse is in a remote or non-urban location.

Partial regulation

A tree house may be included in the same category as structures such as garden sheds, sometimes called a 'temporary structure'. There may be restrictions on height, distance from boundary and privacy for nearby properties. There are various grey areas

Grey area

A grey area is a term for a border in-between two or more things that is unclearly defined, a border that is hard to define or even impossible to define, or a definition where the distinction border tends to move....
in these laws, as they were not specifically designed for tree-borne structures.

Full regulation

A very small number of planning departments have specific regulations for tree houses, which set out clearly what may be built and where.

Protest communities

The tree house has been central to various environmental protest communities around the world, in a technique known as tree sitting

Tree sitting

Tree sitting is a form of environmentalism civil disobedience in which a protester sits in a tree, usually on a small platform built for the purpose, to protect it from being cut down ....
. This method may be used in protests against proposed road building or old growth forestry operations. Tree houses are used as a method of defence from which it is difficult and costly to safely evict the protesters and begin work. Julia Butterfly Hill

Julia Butterfly Hill

Julia Butterfly Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a -tall, 600-year-old Sequoia tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999....
is a particularly well known tree sitter who occupied a Californian Redwood for 738 days, saving the tree and others in the immediate area. Her accommodation consisted of two 3m² (29 sq ft) platforms 60m (200ft) above the ground.

External links

- Resource compiling links to building guides, notable treehouses, and treehouse building businesses