Tree House

So one of my many recently failed art projects includes a raccoon house, which my friend Giulia and I were going to collaborate on until the person responsible for providing the actual raccoons went MIA. At my house's most recent dinner party (theme: things you can roll, like sushi, burritos, cinnamon rolls, etc.), a guest mentioned a pair of raccoons that had were becoming regular diners of his roommate's cat food in their attic. They were trying to devise safe and humane ways to get rid of their unwelcome guests, but were down in their luck in ideas. So the following day, after one too many cups of coffee (really, I just had one), I had the brilliant idea of building a treehouse with luxurious raccoon amenities! We'd be like HUD for our urban wildlife friends. I still think its a great idea, but until I actually find another situation where raccoons are in danger of becoming homeless, I'll just have to leave it in my stock pile of unrealized, seemingly silly but totally serious projects.

Anyways, all that was a back story for what I'm about to present. Ever since I saw this book in the window of St. Mark's Bookstore with these incredible tree houses on the cover a few years ago, I can't get the idea out of my mind. Tree houses, houses made out of trees, trees in our houses...More recently, Giulia brought it to the forefront of my mind when she was telling me about this tree house she was designing for her architecture class. So it was kind of naturally on my mind when this raccoon issue came up. And I thought, how perfect! It's a great opportunity to exercise my interest in what people may think are three separate worlds--animals, housing, and sustainable design and architecture. And now, there's this article in the New York Times recently about an architect who builds with whole trees! I'm linking the article below so you can all read it and keep yourselves updated in cutting edge, sustainable architecture. But in case you really really don't have time, I'm posting some pictures too. Just thinking of the possibilities of beautiful design and environmental benefits building with whole trees could yield is making my brain go off in a million directions it really shouldn't right now. I gotta write a stupid paper...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/garden/05tree.html