Peter Friedl, Hanover House, 2003 Proposal for Hanover 5 inkjet prints, 100 x 133 cm each
Hanover House (2003)
Treehouses are common images and objects of desire for individualism, dropping out, childhood, being in tune with nature, self-determination, and the luxury of leisure: all fixed on such an important and existential matter as housing. Those who live in treehouses want to be freer than others, to be unaffected by civilizational and social rules for finding a living space—at least temporarily.
The Roman emperor Caligula held banquets in trees; the Medici—Cosimo and his son Francesco—competed with each other to see who could build the largest treehouse. Since the sixteenth century, treehouses have appeared in European painting, for example, in the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel. In Cobham Hall in Kent, a three-story treehouse was built in a giant lime-tree. Two historical treehouses still exist today, one from the sixteenth century in Pitchford Hall, the other is a tree church (in Allouville-Bellefosse in Normandy) that has fulfilled its function for 800 years.
In the South Pacific and in Southeast Asia, treehouses enjoy a long tradition. The Kombai and Korowai in West Papua and Papua New Guinea constructed treehouses at heights up to thirty meters above the ground. Various types of treehouses can be studied on the Philippines and Hawaii; they are restaged for the tourist industry.
Popular treehouse icons belong to the stories of Tarzan and the Swiss Family Robinson, reconstructed at Disneyland in Anaheim, Orange County. Owl and Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh’s friends, live in treehouses. Tolkien’s Hobbits meet on the mellyrn.
Mary Austin wrote her novels and tales in her treehouse in Carmel on California’s Pacific coast. Bob Redman succeeded in building a dozen illegal treehouses in New York’s Central Park in the 1980s before he was discovered. At the end of the 1990s, Julia Butterfly Hill used her eight-foot platform on a thousand-year-old Redwood tree as a media forum to protest the practices of the Pacific Lumber Company. The Fairmile tree protest camp was organized in England to oppose roadbuilding plans. A more down-to-earth variant are the huts that arose in the Redwood and Sequoia stumps out west in the U.S. and became postcard motifs, mainly at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The iconography of treehouses shows that more complex issues of form and material occupying architecture and design have commonly been ignored and neglected. Hanover House relates to the fascination and even more so to the problems that result from the confrontation with questions of art, architecture, design, and landscape in public space. It examines the relationships of form and function, biotope and nature, social and individual needs in temporarily structured situations.
Technically, the basic problem facing every treehouse is the platform and attaching it to the tree. Most important is the stable construction of the initial modules, while at the same time, their standardization must be plausible in view of practical, mobile handling. Maximum stability and security should be achieved, and if possible, the tree should not be injured. The lighter the weight, the easier it is to set up and take down the treehouse.
Hanover House is not affixed to the tree with screws and nails, but instead, with two lash belts. Platform and basic equipment for construction should suit a wide range of trees: hanging between several trees is also a possibility. The construction principles follow the example of shipbuilding techniques. However, other materials rather than massive wood are used for Hanover House. The frame of the six-corner platform comprises mainly aluminum parts screwed together, the floor slabs are plywood or Alucore. This construction is pre-mounted on the ground and hoisted to the desired position by means of cable winches. Mainly textiles (tent material) are suitable for the outer covering, but other materials work equally well.
Those interested are welcome to use Hanover House upon mutual arrangement.
Peter Friedl, Hanover House, 2003 Proposal for Hanover 5 inkjet prints, 100 x 133 cm each
Hanover House (2003)
Treehouses are common images and objects of desire for individualism, dropping out, childhood, being in tune with nature, self-determination, and the luxury of leisure: all fixed on such an important and existential matter as housing. Those who live in treehouses want to be freer than others, to be unaffected by civilizational and social rules for finding a living space—at least temporarily.
The Roman emperor Caligula held banquets in trees; the Medici—Cosimo and his son Francesco—competed with each other to see who could build the largest treehouse. Since the sixteenth century, treehouses have appeared in European painting, for example, in the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel. In Cobham Hall in Kent, a three-story treehouse was built in a giant lime-tree. Two historical treehouses still exist today, one from the sixteenth century in Pitchford Hall, the other is a tree church (in Allouville-Bellefosse in Normandy) that has fulfilled its function for 800 years.
In the South Pacific and in Southeast Asia, treehouses enjoy a long tradition. The Kombai and Korowai in West Papua and Papua New Guinea constructed treehouses at heights up to thirty meters above the ground. Various types of treehouses can be studied on the Philippines and Hawaii; they are restaged for the tourist industry.
Popular treehouse icons belong to the stories of Tarzan and the Swiss Family Robinson, reconstructed at Disneyland in Anaheim, Orange County. Owl and Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh’s friends, live in treehouses. Tolkien’s Hobbits meet on the mellyrn.
Mary Austin wrote her novels and tales in her treehouse in Carmel on California’s Pacific coast. Bob Redman succeeded in building a dozen illegal treehouses in New York’s Central Park in the 1980s before he was discovered. At the end of the 1990s, Julia Butterfly Hill used her eight-foot platform on a thousand-year-old Redwood tree as a media forum to protest the practices of the Pacific Lumber Company. The Fairmile tree protest camp was organized in England to oppose roadbuilding plans. A more down-to-earth variant are the huts that arose in the Redwood and Sequoia stumps out west in the U.S. and became postcard motifs, mainly at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The iconography of treehouses shows that more complex issues of form and material occupying architecture and design have commonly been ignored and neglected. Hanover House relates to the fascination and even more so to the problems that result from the confrontation with questions of art, architecture, design, and landscape in public space. It examines the relationships of form and function, biotope and nature, social and individual needs in temporarily structured situations.
Technically, the basic problem facing every treehouse is the platform and attaching it to the tree. Most important is the stable construction of the initial modules, while at the same time, their standardization must be plausible in view of practical, mobile handling. Maximum stability and security should be achieved, and if possible, the tree should not be injured. The lighter the weight, the easier it is to set up and take down the treehouse.
Hanover House is not affixed to the tree with screws and nails, but instead, with two lash belts. Platform and basic equipment for construction should suit a wide range of trees: hanging between several trees is also a possibility. The construction principles follow the example of shipbuilding techniques. However, other materials rather than massive wood are used for Hanover House. The frame of the six-corner platform comprises mainly aluminum parts screwed together, the floor slabs are plywood or Alucore. This construction is pre-mounted on the ground and hoisted to the desired position by means of cable winches. Mainly textiles (tent material) are suitable for the outer covering, but other materials work equally well.
Those interested are welcome to use Hanover House upon mutual arrangement.