Do you want a treehouse but don’t want to have to build one? A lack of time, energy, confidence or skills, are among the biggest barriers to making your own treehouse. And that’s okay — treehouse building isn’t for everyone.
But it doesn’t have to limit you from living the dream. There are lots of prefabricated treehouses for non-builders and they don’t have to be expensive. We wrote about one of them in a previous post.
Here’s another: a tent that suspends you above the ground by three seatbelt fabric tethers attached to trees and then ratcheted tight enough to provide a solid floor in a shelter that sleeps 3.
Interested? I thought so. Alex Shirley-Smith is the architect who designed these treehouses for non-builders while seeking a more ecological way to live.
His inspiration was the Star Wars Ewok village. His company, called Tentsile, declares that its flagship model, the Stingray, is the world’s first truly portable treehouse.
These treehouses for non-builders are priced accessibly. The sleek-as-hell-looking Stingray (because, hey, that’s what it looks like!) retails for $675. Vista, a newer model with similar features, sells for $595.
These are pretty sweet deals when you thing about the fact that it’s saving you from having to buy materials and devoting all that time and energy to building one. Building your own basic treehouse can run you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in materials.
Another advantage to these treehouses for non-builders is that you can easily set them up and take them down, which means you have temporary shelter that sleeps 3 adults for camping trips and a backyard treehouse all in one.
I think that these treehouses for non-builders have a lot of potential for low-income people wanting to near urban centres. For example, I live in Vancouver, Canada which was recently officially declared the 2nd most unaffordable city on the planet! Many people really struggle to find shelter they can afford.
As long as you can find a stand of trees large enough to support the tent, you’ll have reliable and moveable shelter. They’re also a great quick and easy solution for creating an outdoor children’s play area without having to build one yourself.
I also see them as having a lot of potential for activists using treesits to protect wilderness, as I mentioned in a previous post.
To learn more about these incredible inventions, check out Tentsile‘s website. They have a variety of models to suit a range of uses and budgets. Here are a couple of videos to whet your appetite.
Do you know of other affordable treehouses for non-treehouse builders? Be sure to let us know so we can share the knowledge in future blogs.
Image: Misadventures