Tree Dwellers:: Epiphany in my Dreams?

Somehow, I knew that once I started consciously thinking about a potential thesis ideas, I would start having crazy dreams about wild ideas and potential possibilities. I'm guessing this never happens to me at school because I sleep so little- thus, dreaming is but a blissful afterthought as my brain simply tries to recover what little energy it can muster before my alarm decides to pull the "plug".

But I awoke this morning to a fascinating idea. To briefly describe the premise of the dream: I was visiting a friend's lake house (lake unknown, it had a name in the dream, however). After sneaking out onto a small motorboat with a few friends during the early morning, we took an unusual path, meandering in and out of the riverbanks away from the more residential side of the lake, which was home to the vacationer's and clearly more affluent and pricey properties.

What began to appear above our heads were these vibrant tree-dwelling neighborhoods. I believe I conceived the dwellers as illegal squatters / shelters of the homeless. But in a sense, these people were not 'homeless' at all. Through the branches (which they sought refuge from seasonal flooding season - thank you Prof. Sho & ARC 500 Goats + Cell Phones...), were makeshift tree houses, complete with ropes linking branches, crude wooden bridges, recycled trash used to construct pulley systems for water, cooking mechanisms, safety precautions, and more. They were draped in colorful linens, sheets, clothing, etc. and other drying laundry (or perhaps this served as their dresser?!) articles.

Some bungalows were more exposed, revealing sleeping people burrowed under dirty comforters, cardboard, etc. Others were more concealed behind branches and dense leaves. It seemed to be an endless community, however, just occupying the world above us, just as birds and squirrels and really numerous species far more foreign to us. This was not your average Swiss Family Robinson construction, however, but a brilliant collage of recycled life amid the canopy of the forest meant for the outcast of society. What a novel concept!

Needless to say, I awoke curious if this type of squatter living existed somewhere in the world. My cursory findings revealed two 'tree dwelling' typologies: the designer tree house (ironically- or not so- featured in Above Magazine I discovered just the other day), and the dinosaur-age-esque Korowai and Kombai tribes of New Guinea. These tribes live in trees mainly for protection (they are apparently enemies of fellow cannibalistic tribes). Mosquitoes are also apparently a reason for the at times 40m lofted abodes.

Searching for Passion Between the Pages

I have a dilemma. I am embarking on my fifth year as an architecture student at Syracuse University. And I'm officially stumped. As part of the intensive 5-year B.ARCH degree, the summation of our education reaches its pinnacle at the fifth year thesis. And I just have NO idea what I want to spend the next year (hypothetically) developing and designing.


The fall semester is dedicated to a project proposal in which we conduct thorough, on-site research in order to develop an intellectual design problem. Ideally, the research and design problem will evolve into a project, filled with site and design strategies, comprehensive drawings, gripping renderings, and phases of final exquisite models. Ugh. My head hurts just to think about it.

So, in an effort to get a jump on it (something, in theory love doing, I just never seems to follow through to see the fruits of my early labor at the end of such endeavors), I set out on possibly the hottest day this year (thus far, and in my non-AC, broken radio antenna 1980 Accord) to Barnes and Nobles.

B&N is like the holy grail to me. I feel more intellectual just walking down the sacred aisles. On a typical trip, I'd aimlessly grab books off of the shelves, sometimes feigning interest in a book I likely skimmed at best in 9th grade English/Lit, and nonchalantly return them to their perch.

But today, I was on a mission to find a social ill. A dilemma in our world that I could care about enough. Something that could provide me enough fodder to sustain me for research and inevitable project. Well, I didn't find it today. Instead, I was exposed to dozens of new magazines that I had never seen before!

Here's my new favorite: Above Magazine