From the far window, the traffic can be heard from the street below where the horns endlessly bleat their angry tune. The air-con groans from it's perch above the door, cutting through the otherwise silent, stuffy interior of my hotel room. I feel that it's difficult for an individual to feel at ease in a hotel room, isolated as they are in a little box while the fellow on the other side of the wall does the same. At times I find it's all I wish for during a long multi-bed hostel stay, but it's really not worth the wishing. I'll take forced socialisation over voluntary self-isolation any day. Anyhow, luckily I'll only be here for a few hours as I've just arrived from my (much more homely) hostel in Auroville and am due to catch a flight back home in the early hours of tomorrow morning. I had planned to continue volunteering in Auroville, then fly on to New Zealand in a few weeks time, but due to CoViD19, the border has been shut and flights are being cancelled, so I thought it best to return as quickly as possible. Now I have some time to sit in peace and quite I thought I should do some writing. I want to tell you guys about the Tree House Construction Workshop which I finished last week: check out my funky certificate tae prove it -
So lets get down to the practicalities - What did I learn?
It's All about Balance
If you ask a tree house guy what's the best way to put a house in a tree, you'll get many different responses. Some will say use implants, which are metal braces that fit into holes drilled in the tree, while others will say this will cause too much damage and rather you can build a perfectly sound structure by finding a tree that has a suitable branch arrangement from which to rest your tree house structure upon. I must confess, I do not have enough knowledge yet to know how damaging (or not) implants can be, but I do know that the more traditional approach feels less intrusive and highlights the natural beauty of the tree. In Auroville, they choose to build in this way and as evidenced by their prolific portfolio of fine tree houses, this method works rather well. I was incredibly amazed by the whole process of building our one-week-treehouse, where the base structure really does just sit on the natural crotches and bends in the tree. This method does have it's obvious limitations as the tree dictates what shape/size ect of tree house you can build, but I feel in some ways this is a positive rather than negative limitation. Implants make the natural, un-natural and sometimes sit in awkward opposition to the trees that provide its support. Implants effectively turn the trees into simple posts, distracting from their natural beauty, a house built between the trees rather than a house in the trees. More than anything, it just feels better to build something which inflicts the least damage to tree as possible, drilling a great big hole and shoving a metal rod through the centre just feels a little wrong.
The hairy stuff that covers the coconut shell can be be used to create rope. We used this rope to lash and fasten together most of the tree house. In Tamil Nadu, it's an extremely popular building material and can be seen holding together many different structures. The THC have devised particular methods and techniques to make sure the rope performs at its best which include:
- The rope usually comes in a big roll which unravels and contains bunches of shorter rope. These bunches can then be unravelled and made into a bundle. The bundles make it easier to use the rope. To make a bundle, hold the looped end of the rope in your hand and begin to wind it around your palm, wind most of the rope until you have about an arms length left. Slide the wound rope off your hand and then wind the rest around the middle of the rope and tie off. This creates a bundle that when the looped end is pulled will release the rope gradually. This is very useful when you're using the rope for tying beams ect together as you don't have to keep pulling through large lengths of rope.
- As you are making the bundles, soak them in a tub of water, this will reduce friction when your using the rope. Also when the rope dries out, it shrinks and tightens. Likewise, if you use dry rope to fasten things together, when it rains the rope will loosen.
- When using the rope to fasten things together (such as floor beams or a platform beam to a tree) hold the bundle in one hand and the loop in the other, pass the bundle around one beam, letting the rope unravel and then pass it through the loop. You should now have a claw knot. Make one full round of the beam again, then begin to loop around both. When tying, it is important to keep tension on the rope at all times, use one hand to keep tension while the other is making another loop around the beams.
-Coconut rope can last up to around 3yrs before it starts to degrade and needs replacing.
-Use gloves, this stuff is hella rough. Your hands will thank you for it
Trees Are Strong.
During the build I was frequently surprised by how much weight not only the trunk, but the outer limbs could support. Had I been building by myself I would never even considered placing some of the structural beams where we did. The tree house we built sits just above the meeting place of a Neem and Tamarind tree, but the main structure sits in the tamarind. A large branch splits off the main trunk and tapers to a fork. The base structure is a triangle with the tip sitting in the fork and the wider end sitting above the main trunk where the tree splits. Once finished, we had 15 people in the tree house and apart from the natural swaying of the tree, there was no movement whatsoever. In trees we trust!
Bamboo is Very Funky.
I'd never used or even been close to bamboo before coming to Auroville, but now I'm wishing I'd grabbed some to take back in my suitcase! Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world and certain species can grow up to around 40mm in one hour! As a construction material it is incredibly versatile. We used the bamboo for creating the base structure as well as the roof, railings
and.. probably some other things too. Bamboo culms grow in hollow segments called internodes, with each segment marked by a node. It's relatively lightweight and by using a machete it can be quickly split lengthwise into strips which are extremely flexible. We wanted our tree house to have a domed roof but due to time constraints we decided this would be a bit too tricky to execute. Instead, we decided to go for a parasol-type conical shaped roof. To do this, we fixed four vertical bamboo culms to the extremities of the base structure, then bent the ends of these until they touched and fastened them together. We then attached smaller strips of bamboo horizontally to form rings around the four culms all the way to the top. leaves of the Borassus flabellifer palm were then used to cover the roof structure. During one of the build days we also used the bamboo to steam cook our lunch. We cut pieces with the node cap at one end and an open end at the other. Rice, veggies ect. were placed inside with water and then placed directly in the fire. The outside of the bamboo will burn while the inside heats up and boils the water. Once everything has been cooked, the bamboo is removed from the fire and split open to reveal the nicely cooked meal inside.
I think I'll end this post here, but there is still so much more I learnt and must write about from my trip in the trees. - More posts will be forthcoming -
Check out these pictures of the final tree house:
The best view:
The Team
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