The HemLoft is a beautiful egg-shaped treehouse built on Whistler Mountain. It’s magnificent, but because it was built in secret on government land, the fate of the wonderful orb is uncertain.
In 2009, after a false start and some financial woes, Joel Allen, a software engineer turned self-taught carpenter, started building the structure on a tree that supports all of the loft’s weight. Finished in about three months, the HemLoft is located about five minutes from the nearest road, and it doesn’t have electricity or running water. Allen and his girlfriend live in the sweet treehouse in the summers and shower in nearby rivers and streams. Their neighbours are black bears and other creatures.
Though he kept the HemLoft secret for quite sometime, Allen went public with it in a feature in Dwell Magazine and invited a lot of attention to his clandestine home. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen with the amazing treehouse, because it was raised on Commonwealth land without permission. But he says he’s open to visitors, provided they can find it first. [HemLoft via GizMag]
