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'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

#21

Post by analog8374 »

tedd4u wrote: post #17
analog8374 wrote: post #16

What species of tree is good for this? relatively durable relatively fast growing and amenable to bending and grafting willow? anybody ID those trees?

From the article: "The couple, who work with a range of trees including willow, oak and ash, said there were currently "a few dozen" growing pieces in their orchard, including stools, benches and "the odd chandelier" in progress."

an oak chair would take forever

I wonder if this could be done with bamboo.

Can you graft bamboo? Maybe join it by weaving or twisting

Re: 'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

#22

Post by wing-_-nuts »

lofaszvanitt wrote: post #15

Imagine an alien species comes here and sees all this totally fucked up human centric thinking. They put fish in small fish bowls, for their own enjoyment. They deform trees for their own enjoyment... and the list goes on. Bleh.

I assure you, any species capable of interstellar travel will have a capacity and willingness to bend their environment to their will that absolutely dwarfs our own.

Re: 'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

#23

Post by thrownthatway »

Jedd wrote: post #11

Couple of Australians have been doing this since the 90's - I think they coined the term 'pooktre' to describe the form - https://www.pooktre.com/ Searching `Peter Cook Becky Northey tree furniture` gets you some nice pictures of their work, as they don't just 'do chair' -- though I suspect plenty of people have been doing this in various forms for centuries.

Well that’s flabbergasting.

Re: 'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

#26

Post by thrownthatway »

analog8374 wrote: post #16

What species of tree is good for this? relatively durable relatively fast growing and amenable to bending and grafting willow? anybody ID those trees?

Camphor Laurel (Camphora officinarum) in ideal conditions, and for a patient individual, can be observed to grow.

I don’t only if it’s suitable for this particular application, and it’s considered a noxious weed in Australia.

Re: 'We mould trees to grow into the shape of chairs'

#27

Post by Rendello »

lukan wrote: post #13
noworriesnate wrote: post #7

This field is called Tree Shaping[1] and while it has been tried throughout history, I think there's still a lot of cool stuff that has never been tried. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_shaping

The living bridges were new to me. I like the concept, would probably also work in more cold areas, but with more effort. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_root_bridge

One of my favourite examples is bonchi, or bonsai chili. It's exactly what the name implies. Unfortunately I've struggled to keep a regular pepper plant alive, let alone bonsai it:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Bonchi/top/

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