Burning Man 2011 - The Cloud Project

The Cloud Project renders for our Burning Man Art Grant Proposal 2011. As you walk across the playa with your crew, you notice a faint cloud-like shape emerging in the distance. "A cloud?" you think to yourself, "it couldn't be…" As you get nearer, you see that it lies fairly low to the ground, and now you see that, no, it is definitely not a cloud. It is a fluffy looking mass hanging low in the sky above what looks like a giant basket.
"What the…?"





















Of course, you are drawn to checking out this enigmatic flying contraption. When you get within about 5 yards, the sudo-cloud has become fully visible to your naked eye. The floating part is actually a giant nylon net full of what must be thousands of 1 foot diameter blue balloons. The net is tethered to the giant platform in about twenty places. As you are staring at it, the cloud suddenly changes shape, as the tethers shift and the balloons take on a new configuration. The platform, which looks like it is made out of a kind of woven wicker-like material is about a foot off of the ground. As you and your friends step onto the platform, you are blanketed by the calming and cooling relief of shade. There are dozens of people sitting, standing and lying on the rolling landscape, which creating a multiple rolls of armature seating. Around the edges of this "valley" and near the entrances stand large tanks of fresh drinking water. You realize that you have found a desert oasis, ahhhh...












































Side Note: The Cloud will grow in size over the course of the week as we add new, buoyant balloons to the net. It will appear as if a storm is gathering as the cloud becomes more and more voluminous and towering over its occupants.

Ecology Center Greenhouse: Finish

With over 17 large interior shelving units, 15' feet of interior vertical height and double entry this finished greenhouse will be a great home for the San Juan Ecology Centers new "Food Lab" program. This program will educate schools groups and other visitors to the Center about how to grown their own food.

GEO Greehouse for The Ecology Center

Our latest GEO project, a fabulous geodesic greenhouse for The Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

O2 Treehouse was honored to have the opportunity to build a GEO for The Ecology Center, a new eco-education center that "seeks to bring all members of the community together in a solutions-based educational setting to create a healthy and abundant future for all of Orange County." The Ecology Center provides resources, programs, and events for kids and adults alike to learn how to create a healthy planet. (Become a member here today!)

Many thanks to Evan Marks and the whole Ecology Center crew for helping make it a fun and successful build!

Phase 1, erecting the frame...

Phase 2, securing the canopy...

Phase 3, fun with canopy shadow puppets :)

Voila, magnifique!

Boom Festival 2010

Bamboo DNA BOOM! Bamboo DNA created a performance and visual art space called "the Drop" for the BOOM Festival in Portugal this past summer. It was an epic build for everyone involved, utilizing a wide range of skillsets ranging from mud bioconstruction to shadesail rigging to custom stonework. 

I Dustin Feider, owner of O2 Treehouse and JP Chapman, lead builder from the O2 Treehouse team were there for three months as part of the bamboo DNA helping in the construction of two 160' diameter structures, the Drop and the Dance Temple. 

East House Urban Garden Brings high yield of organics!

This summers harvest at the East House Urban Garden has been a bountiful one.  A few of the abundant yields include tomatoes, kale, prickly cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, avocados, oranges, lemons, Persimmons, corn, bananas, basil and many others.  We have been enjoying salads and the like for many months now. Amazing to see the difference in the yard between the spring and now as we are approaching the fall. A tremendous feeling of pride and gratitude I have after taking part in its development. 

So much food in such a small area. Everyone should have a garden like this. I plan on focusing more on designs of structures that help facilitate and beautify back yard gardens like this. 

Updates...

Hello to all. Although the last couple months the headlines on the O2 Treehouse blog have been rather slow I want to inform you that it is not due to any lack of news worthy headlines, events or completed builds!

In an effort to keep the reader fully informed of the O2 Treehouse story many of the forthcoming posts will be blasts from the past! If yourwondering what is in store here are a few curiosities to peak your interest.

• Old gym floors and yoga
  
• The most awesome bamboo tensegrity back yard play structure ever, actually probably the only...
  
• Portugal, bamboo, treehouses and 8 days of crazy loud trance music
  
• 100 eco huts strong, What will the future hold?...
  
• Add to your O2 Treehouse vocabulary the Term "TreePee"
  
• The Orange Pod that is not Orange + all salvaged material!
  
• A telephone pole, Santa Monica Building and Safety, and plutonic objects
  
• Give me some of that good old Texas *&^% Geodesics!!
  
• Lightning In a Bottle, Red Lighting, and more bamboo
  
• The Isreal Project soon to come?
  
• Lunar Lander, Electric Daisy, Ground Geo, or the Prophesied Vibe Tribe Activation Station?
  
• Popular Mechanics:http://www.popularmechanics.com/archive/home/how-to-plans/sheds/0/10
  
• Air France back for more...
  
• Design Feature: Mulholand I love you
  
• The long awaited all bamboo treehouse!!: Designs, schedule, build potential is in the air
  
• Design Feature: Palm fronds, and air foils Jungle feaver no more
  
• Design Feature: Climbing Gyms Unite
  
• Seriously People The Stealth
  
• Design Feature: Tesegrity Tree
  

SocialEarth

Dustin is nailing down the basics for the Redwood project, which includes finalizing the details for a prefab location in Oakland, where he can pre-build

While Dustin irons out the final details for the Redwood tree house project, he is working on a Venice bamboo structure, which will include two hanging platforms, a catwalk, bamboo sanctuary and rope ladders. He’s prefabricating the structure in the backyard of the Permacultre East house in Mar Vista which has a rich history of improving sustainability and reducing waste.

Treehouse Treehouse, Buckminster Fuller Institute Foto: O2 Treehouse Japanische Lampions inspirierten Dustin Feider von O2 Treehouse zu seinem Entwurf, der durch das Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) in New York realisiert wurde...

O2T Gives Talk

O2 Treehouse Gives talk at M&A on, off the grid treehouse communities in the Red Woods

About M&A

Materials & Applications (M&A) is a research and exhibition center dedicated to pushing new and underused ideas in art, architecture, and landscape into view. Our goal is to be a driving force to increase public participation in the built environment by inspiring interest in visitors with their surroundings - while they explore the latest ideas in architectural design and theory on an experiential level. We aim to push the application of materials beyond what typical limits of commercial, residential, and traditional gallery-based projects allow, toward a more flourishing, living architecture. 

About off the grid treehouse camps: 

www.changents.com/o2treehouse

Bamboo Yoga Dome

Together with the Vibe Tribe of Los Angeles headed by Bobby Israel and O2 Treehouse we began construction and development of the bamboo yoga dome. This backyard marvel is situated snugly in the soon to be zened out backyard garden of this Venice community home. With the help of almost 15 volunteers who stopped in intermittently throughout the day to help create the bamboo split frame work the its nautilus like shape was brought to life within hours. There are still many tweaks that need to be done to it says Bobby including a illumine-scent canopy, a maple floor made of recycled gym floors, and possibly some led lighting around the floor edge.

Once it is complete a notice will be sent out to the neighborhood inviting them to take part in weekly yoga gatherings. Visionary community builder extraordinaire Bobby Isreal believes there should be more activities that bring neighbors together and create a strengthened sense of place within their community. Yoga gatherings is just the start.

On the Building

The frame was constructed using roughly 35 - 40' bamboo splits. The splits range in width between two and three inches wide and can withstand extreme dynamic bending nearly 3' in radius. The splits are woven together in a basket weave style which brings surprising strength once the structure is filled out enough. The process is quite entertaining as the team weaving the splits, usually consisting of about 6 people, must yell out a cadence that is kin to chants from a pro tug of war team. In this case your competition is intense friction from the rubbing of the bamboo splits. With credits to the Bamboo DNA team ours consisted of a sharp "yup yup" for go forward and "back back" for reverse. We will have video footage up soon if your curiosity has been captured. Keep an eye out for future posts on the Bamboo Yoga Dome as we move the project forward.

O2 Treehouse Needs Your Support

This August 2009 O2 Treehouse Eco-Tourism will be joining forces with SYRV, a non-profit organization dedicated to enabling travelers and contributors to support developing countries through education, social development, and local engagement.

Two groups of volunteers from SYRV will travel to the village of Jiquilillo & San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, from August 5-12, 2009 and August 19-26, 2009. One of the projects the volunteers will be partaking in, with the local communities involvement, is the development of the O2 treehouse to be built on the property of Montys Surf Camp in Jiquilillo. 100% of the proceeds from guests staying the treehouse will go to sustaining and developing SYRV’s on-going humanitarian efforts in Jiquilillo and the surrounding Chinandega area. This includes sustaining clean water projects, electricity in schools, school donations and more.

In order to build this project of giving and love, we need your help. All moneys donated to SYRV on behalf of O2 Treehouse will help make this happen. We can’t do it without your support.

SYRV has partnered with Project Lagoon (Proyecto Laguna) a US registered charitable foundation with 501(c)(3) status, therefore a your donations are tax deductible.

Thank You, Much Love and Peace!