Tree Houses in Thailand: Lamphun Tree House Project at Films Farm School
Rainer C. Reichel
Graduate Student, Faculty of Architecture, Khon Kaen University
Chumnan Boonyaputthipong
Asst.Prof., M.Arch.(Building Technology), Faculty of Architecture, Khon Kaen University
Abstract
In Thailand, housing development, with concrete as the primary building material, and intensive soil disruption, continues to grow. This often displaces natural systems and the eco services that those systems provide. Concrete also has a high carbon footprint and life cycle cost, and contributes toward the urban heat island effect by absorbing heat. Tree houses are a possible solution, where trees act as living posts to support a living space. The Lamphun Tree House Project featured Thai manufactured steel tree house attachment bolts (TAB’s), originally designed in the USA, as connections between the living trees and a tree house frame. Empirical measurements were made on installed TAB’s showing that a tree house using three Tectona grandis (Teak tree) was feasible. Such construction shows an answer toward solving some of the environmental and social problems associated with current standard construction in Thailand.
Keywords : Tree House, Workshop, Construction
References
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