The High Life
Early artifacts show that hundreds of thousands of years ago, almost all human dwellings were suspended high within trees, away from scavenging animals, floods, and other dangers on the ground. Up there in the canopy, pre-Neanderthal humans would huddle together in tight circles, grunting and clicking, pawing at each other’s wooly coats, enchanting one another with dances of elfin magic and wizardry.
Or at least this is what I used to daydream about up there, lolling away hot summer afternoons on the plywood floor of my childhood tree house. You see, it’s a different world up in the canopy, a world devoid of earth-bound distractions, where the imagination is free to run wild. It’s these qualities that have attracted a handful of new designers to reinvent the tree house, and in the process remind us of something our monkey-ancestors have known for a million years: Branches are the perfect place to hang out.
Check out the slideshow.
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