Tree houses offer an environmentally friendly and sustainable way of building that literally breathes! Chek out, how Sekani Gondwe was inspired to build an ever-expanding coffee shop around a tree in his yard.
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00:00Building environmentally friendly and green? Of course. And best of all, out of the box.
00:08What's this quirky treehouse in the middle of Malawi all about? Let's ask the person who built it.
00:14So it was during COVID. There was very little to do, obviously. I wanted to read a book one morning,
00:21but I struggle with concentration. So I wanted to find an inspiring, quiet place where I could sit and read.
00:27So I looked up the tree. There was a branch. I wanted to put a hammock, but there wasn't a supporting branch to the hammock.
00:34So I thought, why don't I put there a board so I can get on the board, lie down and then read.
00:40OK, it's a treehouse, but it's not actually very private because Komola Coffee in Blantyre is a coffee shop.
00:48Let's find out what happened when all Sigani Gondwe wanted was to find a quiet place to read and nap during COVID lockdown.
01:01It all started here. This is the first board that we stuck on this tree.
01:06But when I stood here and I looked this way, my eyes locked with the peak of the mountain.
01:11I wanted to invite my wife to come. I called her. She came, but she couldn't climb up the tree.
01:16I was so committed to have her come up. So I promised her that the next morning I'll build her steps.
01:23So that's basically what started the whole work.
01:26So this was the first piece of furniture that came up on the boards.
01:30And we spent that second evening here with the kids.
01:34And the third day, guys came to my house and I wasn't at the house. I was this side.
01:40So they all followed us here, but there wasn't enough room for them.
01:44So again, I promised them, I said, the next day I'll add another board. We will expand so that we can accommodate you as well.
01:51As the ideas grew, so did the building.
01:54What are the particular challenges associated with this type of construction?
01:59And what might actually happen when the tree itself continues to grow?
02:04We're sitting on trees that are alive. And so the bees are growing and changing in shape.
02:09So we have noticed a little bit of changes in the shape of this whole thing.
02:14But it's great because everything is real. We just follow what's happening.
02:19So maybe when the tree grows, something changes. It might, for us, maybe open up an idea for something even more interesting.
02:29Before we find out why Sigani decided to build a restaurant and guest house around a tree.
02:35Let's check out how he managed this ambitious project without being a construction genius.
02:40How did he channel his inner carpenter to build this tree house?
02:45I grew up with busy hands, just playing with things, making things.
02:49A lot of things that are here were already somewhere in the garage, pieces of things that were about to be thrown away.
02:58So first things to repurpose were the timbers. Some of them were thrown away from some construction sites.
03:04So we kind of collected them, kept them.
03:07We also find ourselves at a training center where people do trainings and then they do cooking with firewood.
03:14I've rescued some of the things in the fire that people are trying to use it for firewood, like our piece there.
03:21It was already burning on the one end. That's the chandelier there.
03:25So we've had business meetings here.
03:29And so like Mondays and Tuesdays, especially in the morning, they do meetings, but we also provide meals.
03:36Definitely, if people are here the whole day, they need to eat or something.
03:41But coffee has already always been part of the culture.
03:44At Komula Coffee, guests don't have to swing from branch to branch with ropes like Tarzan.
03:50Sigani has created extendable platforms that have been reinforced to carry any number of people.
03:56What was initially just a resting place now is a flourishing business.
04:01What attracts guests to the treehouse?
04:03It provides us with a nice space, an environment where we can harness our creativity and find some source of inspiration.
04:15Because it is an environment, as you can see, that is serene.
04:21It's calm, it's peaceful, but also it is where you can meet nature as we are just below or at the bottom of such mountain.
04:38So the whole story starts from me looking for a quiet place to read.
04:43So people took it over. So we decided maybe we can do a hideout.
04:49So these steps that were created and we have a bed up there in the roof.
04:56So I read for a day or two, but then people took that over also.
05:01And outside this property, there's another property and it's on the river where we would call it, I guess, a dead end where people don't go.
05:13So we thought that would be quite enough.
05:15So now the reading went down to the river.
05:18But when Sigani finally settled into the relative privacy of his riverbound raft, his family, friends and customers wanted to experience this exciting new space too.
05:29So guess what he did?
05:31So we thought maybe we can build structures around that place so that it makes life easy.
05:37It's comfortable while you're there, just looking for a quiet time.
05:42Rustic, natural and ecological, Komula Coffee in Blantyre is the perfect place for a private break, at least for its guests.
05:51For Sigani Gondwe, his search for a quiet place to read and perhaps take a nap continues.