Treehouse-Tents

Research

’Treehouses in Paradise’

The book ‘Treehouses in Paradise’ (Greenberg, 2006) covers a competition set up by the author on treehouse design in tropical and (strangely) treeless locations. This gave the applicants, over 100 of which submitted work, total flexibility, including where to place their trees. The design that most intrigued me was a sort of inflatable tree-tent, designed to wrap around the trunk of a palm.

Low quality image.

This pointed me in the direction of tree tents, a class of semi-permanent, often fabric, portable, structures designed to be used in trees, although sometimes multifunctional.

’Treehouse Living 50 Innovative Designs’ (Laurens et al., 2008)

This book gives a different angle, showing the work of the firm Cabane Perchee Company La in their endeavour to create tree-specific, permanent wooden treehouses. The structures are beautiful in the way they fold around the branches of the trees, accommodating every branch, showing truly bespoke design. I am more Interested, however, in universal designs, that either by using interchangeable components, or by being small, non-specific structures, can fit around any suitable tree. This further pushed me towards the tree-tent, although the the way in which their designs suited each tree inspired me to create work that accommodated the tree as much as possible.

Tents

Tentsile — Trilogy Super Tent

The company tentsile specialise in consumer-marketed tree tents (as well as ground tents), highlighting on their tree tent section ‘the comfort and versatility of a camping hammock, with the protection, security and multi-occupancy of a tent’ (Tentsile, s.d.). In particular their product ‘Trilogy Super Tent’ caught my eye, as it combines three individually sold tents into one larger super structure with a central canopy, creating a sort of floating basecamp. This inspired me to create designs that feature multiple interlinked units, creating the potential to build small settlements amongst the trees, as well as better using tree space by more adaptive designs. The use of ratchet straps as a pre-made structural element is also inspiring, as it reduces the complexity involved in design.

’Tree House Dome 13FT BY DOMESPACES’

The luxury tent ‘Tree House Dome 13FT’ by the firm Domespaces, sold via Etsy (Domespaces, s.d.) is comprised of a galvanised steel frame with pvc wrapped around it, to form a sphere. The sphere has a raised floor to create a livable space within, and can importantly be raised about the ground on ropes to bring the space into a tree, creating an isolated and protected environment.

The space is comforting, and has built in passive or mechanical ventilation depending on conditions. The structure, however, costs upwards of 7000 GBP (Domespaces, s.d.) targeting business customers and putting the product out of reach for most consumers. I was inspired to create a more accessible design.

Heimplanet Tents

Heimplanet’s lightweight, minimalist and quick to assemble air beam tents are well known. The air beam frame makes them both strong and simple, keeping them portable and durable. The structural element sits outside and holds the inner shell up, giving them their telltale appearance, often using contrasting colours for the beams. The pneumatic system, however, would be difficult to design in such a short time span, and would, without the right materials, prove short lived or easy to break. Their design is what has inspired my work, the use of minimal, high contrast colour pallets to highlight the beauty in simple design.

Heimplanet’s ‘the Cave’. The tent sleeps three, and is notable for it’s well-lit, lofty interiour, as well as weighing 5.4 kg. Image and details credit: Heimplanet (s.d.)

Skywalk Range Xalps 3

Although not a tent, the paragliding support structures by skywalk share forms with my design intention, and inspired me to create simple bodies. If I were to use the air beam construction method mentioned before in my reference to Heimplanet, I would closer inspect this design.

VR Forest Animal Experience Headsets

These modified VR headsets, used for an experience simulating the perspectives of various forest creatures (Tucker, 2015), incorporate natural elements and a simple, organic form to bridge the technology visually with the surrounding nature, replicating the bridge the experience presents. The aesthetic matches my interest in organically inspired design.

Sketches and Notes

Having completed initial research, I decided to go with a treehouse-tent design, a sort of sheltered hammock or suspended bivvi or sleeping bag. This sketch illustrates the basic form:

I then did further sketches and made some notes constraining the design. Here are also the notes I made reading the treehouse books.

3D Model

I then designed a full 3D model in Shapr3D, using a base platform with arched roof. The design has three points of contact, as in my last sketches, where ratchets could either attach or pass through to come together in the centre.

These renders show my final design:

Fabric Pattern

Having created the 3D model, I then turned to a blender extension called ‘Blender Seams to Sewing Pattern‘, written by Kole (s.d.) to transform it to a useable fabric pattern.

This image shows the default blender cube as I have processed it, as a stuffed fabric model.

I also created models of my lantern design in fabric:

I then attempted to create a fabric pattern from my tent model. Initial attempts failed, with errors or distorted designs. The unusual shape I believe is the main issue, as the model has a series of thin surfaces that seemed to break the fabric model.

This route having failed, I turned to the online website plushify.net written by Sebastian Stamm (2023). The tool is designed for simpler models, for creating plush toys from desired 3D shapes. It was, however, after several workarounds, the only tool that I was able to use to create a coherent fabric pattern.

Using the tool to convert the .obj file into a pattern.

The final fabric pattern result, spread across 3 A2s for laser cutting.

Mock-up at 1:4 scale

Fabric choice

I originally wanted to produce the mockup using waterproof fabric, and was given some kindly by the fashion department:

However after checking with the 3D technicians if the waterproof material could be cut in the laser cutter, they advised that without safety information, this would not be possible, and recommended using natural fibres instead. I opted for cotton tablecloths, again kindly given by the fashion department.

Cutting Pieces Using Laser Cutter

I first ran some test rectangles, to check what power and speed I would need for cutting and engraving:

This was the result for the cotton tablecloth:

I then cut the pieces:

Sewing

The next step was assembly, which came piece by piece and then by two groups, the pieces forming the base and those forming the ‘roof’ or cover.

Mockup Piece in Final Show

Here is the end result, as hung on the wall for the final show:

Reference List

Domespaces (s.d.) Tree House Dome 13FT BY DOMESPACES THD2444. Luxury Camping and - Etsy UK. At: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1111704246/tree-house-dome-13ft-by-domespaces?epik=dj0yJnU9ay1TSnFSdlVYVjRUTjh5R1c2dEF3SDg0ZjhkTWEwT2EmcD0wJm49SGZvOERhcDJjZlFyQXVRdS00bmMzZyZ0PUFBQUFBR1JIMUdB (Accessed 25/04/2023).

Flugschule Ternberg (2023) Skywalk Range Xalps 3. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLJ4gRKTi6k (Accessed 03/05/2023).

Greenberg, D. (2006) Treehouses in Paradise. (s.l.): ABRAMS.

Heimplanet (s.d.) THE CAVE, Classic. At: https://heimplanet.com/products/the-cave-classic (Accessed 03/05/2023).

Kole, T. (s.d.) Files · master · Thomas Kole / blender Seams to Sewing pattern · GitLab. At: https://gitlab.com/thomaskole/blender-seams-to-sewing-pattern/-/tree/master (Accessed 19/05/2023).

Laurens, A., Dufour, D., André, G., Artrus-Bertrand, Y. and Thfoin, V. (2008) Treehouse Living. (s.l.): Abrams.

Skywalk (s.d.) RANGE X-ALPS. At: https://skywalk.info/project/range-x-alps3/ (Accessed 03/05/2023).

Stamm, S. (2023) Plushify. At: https://plushify.net/#/ (Accessed 19/05/2023).

Tentsile (s.d.) Tree Tents & Hammock Tents. At: https://www.tentsile.com/collections/tree-tents (Accessed 25/04/2023).

Tentsile (s.d.) Trilogy 6-Person Super Tree Tent. At: https://www.tentsile.com/products/trilogy-6-person-super-tree-tent#jsproductaccordion (Accessed 24/04/2023).

Tucker, E. (2015) Virtual reality presents a forest from an animal’s perspective. At: https://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/02/in-the-eyes-of-the-animal-virtual-reality-installation-marshmallow-laser-feast-abandon-normal-devices-festival-england/amp/?sspiabi=1683112398640 (Accessed 19/05/2023).

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