The Free Spirit Sphere - inspiration for the relocatable home of the future

Sphere house design is not new and nor is relocatable housing. We covered an ingenious design last year. The aptly-named Free Spirit Sphere offers easily relocatable housing that can sit in a cradle on the ground, or be hoisted 30 metres into the air in an old growth forest. Whatsmore, the sphere can be removed inside 24 hours leaving not a trace that it was ever there. Currently only produced in hand-crafted US$100,000 wooden versions, creator Tom Chudleigh plans to release a fibreglass version by mid-year that will sell for just US$25,000.

The Free Spirit Sphere is a modern day tree house that borrows heavily from sailboat construction and rigging practice and is designed to allow the user to commune with nature whilst doing as little possible to disturb the natural habitat. Built in Canada, by Tom Chudleigh, the idea of the Free Spirit Sphere is new and still in the development stage.

As free a spirit as the company name suggests, Tom said that one day, "the idea just came to me." "It became clearer as I started building the first sphere and it's still growing and evolving. Whenever I have a problem with the spheres I just get quiet for a while and up pops a solution. I feel lucky to be the builder.

"There are only the two I've built out there so far," says Tom. "I'm still developing the whole concept and the production model. I have had one up in the trees for five years. I've also got a fibreglass mould made and expect to start making fibreglass shells sometime late this spring or summer (Q3, 2005)."

Environmentally friendly

Part of Tom's vision for the Free Spirit Sphere is to create a living environment within a forest that enables the dweller to be "at one" with the forest without doing any environmental damage. "I don't know of any other structures that do as little damage to the trees as the sphere," says Tom. "We humans have an impact wherever we go and something very low tech like a sod house can minimize those effects too.

"What the sphere does do is force us into a cooperative living arrangement with the forest. The trees have to be nurtured and protected to keep the sphere safe. I think they create a little bubble of altered space in the midst of a confused world. It feels very refreshing to be there.

"I believe we are far more than just bodies, with brains. I think we are connected to the creative source at the level of Spirit. I live my life from that point of view. This was just one of the ideas that filtered down and I was inspired to build it. The reality of it surpassed my wildest dreams.

Erecting the Sphere

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