Tag: built space

Connie Merriman, Tree House, 2010

Materials

Dawn Redwood tree, light, paper, wood

Artist Statement

I have always wanted a tree house. When I was young, I spent a lot of time in the top of a cherry tree that grew in a wood adjacent to my home. You could be quiet in the branches and watch animals walking the paths below. I thought it would be good to have a shelter for myself in the tree so that I could be more safe and comfortable. Now I think of a tree house in another way. In a gesture to address the issues of stewardship, this fragile house is made to shelter a tree, and the natural world it represents, from humanity’s built environment. It is a house for a tree.

Source: mattress.org

Vito Acconci, Making Shelter: House of Used Parts, 1985

Materials

aluminum ladders, pup tent, rubber tires, wooden doors

Description

The compact shelter constructed of discarded materials sits in an inner city garden, lush with flowers and foliage behind a plain wooden fence. Four chair backs, made from aluminum ladders, hold up a pitched roof consisting of two doors in a wooden frame. Between the chairs is a pup tent which doubles as a table base. Climbing one of the ladders up into the attic-room, you find rubber tires fastened closely together to form a hammock.

Source: mattress.org