A Home in the Trees

Low impact? These cabins don't even touch the ground

by BEVERLY CRAMP & photos by CORY DAWSON

Imagine dreaming an idea into reality. In a sense, that is what Tom Chudleigh did when, over a span of almost two decades, he first conceived of a unique spherical habitation structure. Chudleigh’s dream became reality eight years ago when he completed the first of his “tree spheres”: round treehouses suspended in the forest.

“The idea came to me probably about 20 years ago while meditating,” says Chudleigh, as he sketches some of his earlier visions and influences on a paper napkin in a small Vancouver Island café. “At first I thought I would build a spherical houseboat. I had already been building boats for 10 years at this point. And I’m a believer in the concept of the oneness with all of creation. Conventional architecture is all about separation…But in a sphere, the walls, floor, and ceiling all become one. If you believe in the concept of oneness, then why not immerse yourself in a unified structure?”

Originally from Calgary, Chudleigh trained as a power engineer and worked for many years on survey ships. “Shipwrights and boat builders are really good with curves,” he says. “I built dinghies and little sailboats while I lived in Calgary. The first big boat I made from scratch was a 45-foot steel ketch.”

Chudleigh was inspired by a floating wheelhouse in Thailand that survived cyclone forces. “It took an amazing beating in a cyclone…Wind flows around a sphere rather than ramming into it as it does with a square.”

It was after Chudleigh moved to B.C. that he began to work out ideas for his spherical dwelling. “I just started building it. I got halfway through and along came the treehouse idea. I thought I would hang it off ropes and make it a big tree ornament. I’ve always enjoyed treehouses and climbing trees. There’s something incredible about that environment up there; it’s so peaceful.”

Chudleigh made his first tree sphere, “Eve,” from five-centimetre yellow cedar wood strips—400 in all. The outermost layer is covered with two layers of woven fibreglass roving set in epoxy.

Chudleigh insulated the sphere and stapled vinyl upholstery fabric to the inside frames. He made reference to yacht style by using brass trim, varnished wood, and cane doors. All of the brass fittings were cast by hand using Chudleigh’s designs.

Eve is just over two and a half metres in diameter and weighs 354 kilograms. Inside there is room for a bench-like table and chair, bed, and counter space. Bubble windows on either side let natural light through. Eve is wired for power, sound, and telephone.

The second tree sphere, Eryn, is roughly three metres in diameter, weighs 500 kilograms, and is made from Sitka spruce wood strips. Spruce wood also works better than cedar with glue as the latter is oilier, and that interferes with the gluing process. Eryn has closets on either side of the door and a galley area with a counter, cupboards, and a sink. A microwave oven and a small refrigerator have been installed, and above the galley area is a loft bed with circular shelf segments connecting it to the cupboards on either side of the entrance door.

For his third tree sphere, Chudleigh took a mold off Eryn and created one of fibreglass. “Fibreglass is durable and strong. The maintenance is down to nothing. The wooden ones need a coat of varnish once in a while. Fibreglass is also a blank canvas. You could paint so many different things on it so it blends into the forest.”

Fibreglass spheres are also much less expensive to build. “The wooden tree spheres take one man’s labour for eight months. Three of us can make a fibreglass sphere shell in a week.”

Chudleigh estimates that an outfitted wooden sphere costs about $150,000 and the fibreglass spheres cost $38,000, plus another $10,000 to install, including the spiral staircase leading from the ground to the tree house.

Each sphere is hung in a triangle of trees about six to 12 metres apart, using 3/4-inch poly-steel rope as the main tethers. The first time Chudleigh lifted Eve into the trees, it was done by hand with come-alongs. He now uses an electric winch.

Chudleigh frequently gets asked about safety. He says the mere shape of the sphere makes it safer in a forest than conventional square architecture: falling trees will almost certainly crash directly into square buildings, while spherical shapes have a good chance of deflecting falling objects. In a windstorm, each of the three supporting trees will absorb some of the force so that the tree-suspended spheres are buffeted less directly and without the total effect of force.

Chudleigh’s “Free Spirit Spheres” are located on an acreage outside Vancouver Island’s Qualicum Bay. Eryn and Eve are rented as unique bed and breakfast units ($100 to $150 per night). A fourth fibreglass sphere is under construction; Chudleigh plans to use it as a massage studio.

Reprinted with permission from Cottage (March 2007). For more information, visit freespiritspheres.com.

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