Reporting this story has confirmed that these products have a higher environmental cost than live trees, which is a concern for many, including me. In 2021, I spoke with three manufacturers, two of them new to us. For the 2019 version of this guide, senior editor Harry Sawyers spoke with three major tree manufacturers to identify the latest offerings and track new developments in the fake-tree world. We also spent hours examining trees at House of Holiday (New York City’s largest holiday shop), whose owner, Larry Gurino, “love to geek out over artificial trees.” Senior editor Courtney Schley has interviewed the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents artificial-tree makers, to understand the industry itself, including the manufacturing processes, sales and design trends, and statistics. Since then we’ve shopped for trees online and in person at several big-box stores, and we’ve tested various trees over the years. Our crash course in artificial Christmas trees began in 2016, when I visited a fake-tree-manufacturer’s New Jersey headquarters. But it delivers a level of fullness and realism that’s truly stunning. Like the less expensive trees we tested, this one still requires you to put in some time arranging and perfecting it to make it look its best. The “flip” function simply tilts the lower section of the tree upright during setup, so you don’t have to lift it into place yourself this is another welcome feature, since the tree weighs 78 pounds in total. We particularly appreciate that this tree’s base has wheels, a unique feature among our test group, because they make it much easier to move the tree into place and back into storage. Like those on the Downswept Douglas Fir, the lights on this tree connect automatically via plugs within the trunk, and they too can switch between clear, color, or a mix of the two. It also has more lights (1,320 versus 750), creating an opulent display that our testers universally preferred. (For smaller homes, we recommend the 6½-foot version.) As with most artificial trees, this model takes up a chunk of storage space in the off-season, even when it’s disassembled.Ĭompared with National Tree’s Downswept Douglas Fir, Balsam Hill’s 7.5-foot Fraser Fir Flip Tree Color + Clear LED has a greater proportion and higher number of realistic branches, which makes it appear more lifelike, especially from across a room. Finally, it’s widely available, easy to set up, and competitively priced. At 7½ feet high and almost 5 feet across, the tree is generously proportioned it will fill the corner of almost any living room. Also, while some trees require you to hunt down the light strings’ plugs among the foliage and manually connect them, this tree has a trunk-mounted PowerConnect system, which automatically does the job for you when you stack its three sections together. The 750 built-in LED bulbs fill its branches nicely, and the lights can switch from all white to multicolor to a mix of the two, giving the tree an uncommon versatility. Yet with a higher-than-average proportion of those lifelike branches, the Downswept Douglas Fir creates a more convincing illusion of a living fir.
With nearly 2,000 lifelike polyethylene branch tips, surrounding a core clad with less-realistic PVC “pine needles,” this tree has a construction similar to that of other high-quality artificial trees. Drawing on a range of international case studies, the authors trace the effect that advances in technology have had on design and construction in this field, providing a clear understanding of the structure, morphology, design process and construction technology, and examining both the application and constraints of timber gridshells in architectural design.Compared with both pricier and cheaper trees, National Tree Company’s 7.5-foot Feel Real Downswept Douglas Fir strikes a good balance of cost, realism, and ease of setup. This timely book charts the origin and evolution of the timber gridshell and its relation to timber lattice architecture.
#Christmas tree tessellation software#
Recent developments in digital design, 3-D modelling software and timber fabrication technologies, as well as trends towards low- carbon construction, have further reinforced architects’ interest in the use of lightweight timber grids and lattice structures. Over the last fifty years, more sophisticated ‘webs of wood’ have emerged, with timber gridshells in particular becoming a structurally expressive form of architecture. History, people have constructed simple timber lattice shelters, such as the tepee or yurt, covered with animal skins, leaves, grasses and woven fabrics.
0 kommentar(er)
