Two equally valid methods:
Engineering vs. Artistic
The Engineering Method
follows the time-honored practice of (1) identifying a complete set of design
goals, (2) assessing the unknowns and "what-ifs" that might impact
the construction, operation and useful life of the project, and finally (3)
rigorously determining a quantitative solution based upon applied physics,
chemistry and mathematics, along with the appropriate and reasonable assumptions
and probabilities that anchor each solution to the real world. You may be
planning a better cell phone or a better Mars probe, but the process remains
largely the same.
The Artistic Method dispenses entirely with the above restrictions and instead
emphasizes the aesthetic, the empirical, the experimental, and sometimes even
exasperating aspects of creativity. The final product may little resemble
the initial concept. A design is more likely to have the appearance of being
a living extension of its surroundings when using the Artistic Method, rather
than appearing arbitrary and sterile, as is sometimes the case when using
standard engineering methodologies.
Both solutions must necessarily reach out to each other. Certain artistic
creations may no longer appear so beautiful when they are retroactively engineered
and reconstructed to meet the strictest interpretation of the International
Building Code. The well engineered box cannot become an artistic statement
by simply adding ornaments and fascia.
The study of tree houses from both perspectives will help to open up one's
thinking to the beauty and analytical powers offered by both sides of your
brain.
Tree Mechanics:
We take for granted the power and grace that so many trees exemplify. The
more you learn about their behavior, and especially their adaptive capabilities,
the more amazing they seem. Trees are one of the best examples of the simultaneous
expression of Art and Engineering. Each species exhibits its own magnificence,
and when they are grouped together, you have one of the most remarkable and
least understood of nature's living creations: The Forest.
A walk through the forest can profoundly effect your state of mind, to say
nothing of your spinal alignment, all while curing your most stubborn case
of sinusitis. Clearly, there is more going on here than we can understand
using accepted scientific methodology.
Marcel Vogel, who brought into the world many things including electroactive
liquid crystals, once took philodendron plants that had been raised together
and placed them on opposite sides of the United States and then stressed them
by various methods. Instrumentation showed that by some mechanism each plant
was able to react to the stress produced in the other, in real time, and thousands
of miles apart. Similarly, G. C. Bose's experiments in auditoriums in India
with hundreds of witnesses demonstrated real time growth and stress reactions
in plants. This was at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Experiments have been conducted using various wavelengths of light, sound
waves, different types of audio programming, altered atmospheres and temperatures,
and just about everything one could imagine. Living material nevertheless
tries to propagate, grow, adapt to its conditions, and even thrive if the
allowed. And all in real time.
treehouseengineering@mac.com
http://treehouseengineering.com
©2007 TreehouseEngineering.com Charles Greenwood PE/Greenwood Engineering- All rights reserved.
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