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A Secret and Illegal Design-Build: The HemLoft Treehouse

By Rain Noe - May 2, 2012

in Architecture

You go into design because you want to create things, and you go into industrial design to create things that will be mass-produced. And mass production, by definition, involves factories and marketing people and finance guys and sales forces, and everyone gets a say. So you quickly learn that unless you're a design superstar, you don't really get to create things on your own terms. Unless you keep things small.

That's why I find this story so fascinating. Joel Allen was a Canada-based software developer who bottomed out financially after his company went broke in the '00s. He taught himself carpentry, and soon set his sights on building a killer treehouse. The rudiments of a design were provided by architecture student friends, and Allen subsequently set about making his dream a reality.

The story is insane on so many levels. First of all, the treehouse is illegally sited on "Crown land," or what's known as State land in the United States—government-protected forests. Secondly, Allen had to hand-carry all of the materials out to the site (and carry the construction waste back out to fulfill his goal of keeping the site as pristine as possible). Thirdly, when his construction was interrupted by helicopter traffic from the nearby Olympics, he had to partially dismantle the structure and camoflauge it to avoid detection. Fourthly, building something structurally sound—let alone level—on a tree clinging to a sharply-sloped mountainside is an engineering feat you'd expect to farm out to a firm specializing in such. Allen pulled it off largely by himself and later, with the help of a girlfriend.

Allen's complete story of the HemLoft, as it's known, is epic and far too long to encapsulate here. But if you can carve the time out of your day it's a highly worthwhile multi-part read, with photos of the construction process.

Here's a video showing what the house (and a surprisingly earnest, for a lawbreaker, Allen) looks like:

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krys

12 years ago

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As cool as it is. It should be taken down. Like Jake said - why did he just get a permit to build it Legally on Private land rather than purposely do it on a protected government land. I'm all for going after your dream but he is just attention seeking. The sad thing is not only will all his work be wasted when they tear it down (because no matter how many petitions are signed, it will be torn down) but he will also face prison.
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chris

12 years ago

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whistler is in canada. the olympics were in canada. this thing is attached to a tree in canada.
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Jochem

12 years ago

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Tim, dude, why piss on his parade? Don't you just love the feeling of freedom this brings you?

The fact that he followed his dreams is amazing to me. In our society too many people do what they have always done, just going through life like they're on the automatic pilot. Not this guy. He chose to explore his skills and by doing so, he enlightened people by building this.

I truely hope he will be able to keep it the way it is now. I support him.
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Scott

12 years ago

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I wonder if he wiped the GPS metadata off all those photos.
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powers

12 years ago

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Not only that, they're drinking alcohol on government land...

ILLEGAL!

Haha! Awesome project though. As I'll be building a treehouse in the next year or so this is very inspirational. And yeah, phones have levels now, not rocket science.
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Jake

12 years ago

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I'm a little curious why he didn't just build it legally. Won't the gov't just come by and demolish it?
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tim

12 years ago

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My friend, it does not take a genius to use a level *anywhere*. It is a very nice-looking tree house, but many people with enough time, could also build level and awesome tree-houses.
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