TREE SPHERE CREATOR Tom Chudleigh stands at the top of the rope and wood staircase and gangplank that winds its way around the tree trunk providing access to the sphere.

LAUREN KRAMER PHOTO

Try swinging from trees on Tu B'Shevat

By Lauren Kramer

article created on: 2009-02-01T00:00:00

Imagine spending the night in what looks like a large eyeball suspended spider-like from old-growth trees, a treehouse for grownups that rocks you gently to sleep in the wind. 

Since Tu B’Shvat is known as the festival of the trees, I was determined to celebrate it differently last year—and a night in a large eyeball hanging from Vancouver Island’s trees seemed just the right fit. 

The tree houses are called spheres and are the brainchild of Tom Chudleigh, an islander bent on creating back-to-nature accommodation that leaves nary a footprint on the environment. Too small to be called a cottage, too sealed to resemble a tent and too suspended to come close to a tree house, the spheres occupy a category all their own.

They are a unique form of accommodation, structures that hang from living organisms and rely on the elements for their motion.

Tight and compact as a nut, they represent a marvel of ingenuity as they rock gently in the breeze. A ladder hugs the circumference of the tree trunk, providing access to and from the sphere, and once inside, you’re sealed in a room-for-two in a giant, round  capsule 20 feet from the ground. 

“I didn’t know much about spheres initially, but I knew they’d be important to me somehow,” says Chudleigh, 57, a Canadian from Calgary who began making his first sphere in 1992. “Now I realize the sphere has symbolic meaning of wholeness, connectedness as opposed to separation. The walls become the ceiling and the floor. In a sphere, it’s all about oneness.”

The two spheres he rents out for nightly or weekly use are a labor of love. Each composed of spruce, they sport Costa Rican teak wood floors, two circular windows, two beds and a seating or dining area. Storage space is cleverly fitted into all the nooks and crannies of the orb, and guests have running water, a kettle and microwave, and even a speaker system so you can plug in your iPod and listen to your favorite tunes.

I’m grateful for the absence of music the night my companion and I sleep in Eryn, the larger of the two spheres. It is comforting up there in the treetops, in this small, peaceful and organic space. We watch Christmas and Thanksgiving (the geese Chudleigh inherited when he rented this property) swim gracefully on the pond. An ever-so-slight breeze rocks Eryn softly, and as darkness descends we are lulled to sleep on comfy beds by this rhythmic, slow dance. 

The tree spheres are eco-tourism personified. Hoisted into the air, they leave no footprint on the ground and require no elimination of vegetation. A composting toilet located steps away from the ladder provides a sanitary and non-odiferous solution, and guests in need of a shower take a three-minute walk to Chudleigh’s log cabin, where a bathroom has been set aside for their use. 

For now, the spheres hang in a grove on the five-acre property he inhabits in British Columbia, near Vancouver Island’s Horne Lake. Ultimately, Chudleigh dreams of an eco-friendly resort where 20 or more spheres will hang together deep in a forest, one, he says, “where floatplanes preferably provide the only access.” 

His rustic workshop holds the seeds of this idea. In one corner sits an unfinished fiberglass sphere that will serve as a massage room. A trailer on wheels is another work in progress, destined to become a sauna and two bathrooms for guests.

These days, he is fielding calls from New York, France and Australia as people all over the world read about his work and express interest in purchasing a sphere. The fiberglass versions take seven months to create and sell for $50,000, while the spruce versions require 20 months’ labor and have a $150,000 price tag.

Most guests use the spheres for sleeping, but others use it for meditation, or find inspiration to write. 

“One couple spent a few days making a documentary film in the sphere, and for another guest, a night in the sphere was a transformative experience, prompting a total life change,” Chudleigh recalls.

“People certainly seem to find it restful,” he muses. “They tell me that it is very relaxing, and that they haven’t slept so well in a long time. Perhaps that is because of the motion, or the space itself, or the fact that they’re up in the trees for the first time since they were kids.”

For now, Chudleigh is thoroughly enjoying his orbital experiment, and when bookings get quiet you will find him and his wife Rosey curled up in one of the spheres for the night. 

“I think it’s my job to throw the idea of spheres out into the mass consciousness, and see where it goes,” he says.

This story made possible by a grant from the Judith and Edwin Cohen Foundation

Free Spirit Spheres are an hour’s drive from the Duke Point ferry terminal on Vancouver Island, B.C. Available year-round, on a nightly or weekly basis, with prices ranging between CDN$125 and CDN$175 per night. Book via email to rosey@freespiritspheres.com. For details, visit www.freespiritspheres.com or call 250-757-9445.