Arthur Wiechula

{{Short description|Tree shaping theorist}}

File:Wiechula grafted branches.gif

Arthur Wiechula (January 20, 1867 – 1941) was a German landscape engineer. His marriage to Lydia Lindnau, produced three children, Margarethe (1895), Max (1897) and Ernst (1900).

{{Citation| last = Kirsch| first = Konstantin| authorlink = Konstantin Kirsch| year = 1996| title = Naturbauten aus lebenden Geholzen (Nature House Building)| publisher = OLV, Organischer Landbau-Verl. Lau| edition = 3| isbn = 978-3-922201-17-5|page=82}}

He received the German Royal State Inventor's Honor Cross.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}} In 1926, he published Wachsende Häuser aus lebenden Bäumen entstehend {{Citation| last = Wiechula| first = Arthur| author-link = Arthur Wiechula| title = Wachsende Häuser aus lebenden Bäumen entstehend (Developing Houses from Living Trees)| publisher = Verl. Naturbau-Ges| year = 1926| pages =320}} (Developing Houses from Living Trees) in German,{{cite web|title=designboom: history of arborsculpture|url=http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/trees_wiechula.html}}{{Citation| last = Link| first = Tracey| title = Arborsculpture: An Emerging Art Form and Solutions to our Environment| location = Senior project for Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture| page = 15| date = June 13, 2008| url = http://lda.ucdavis.edu/people/2008/TLink.pdf| access-date = May 16, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120225225911/http://lda.ucdavis.edu/people/2008/TLink.pdf| archive-date = February 25, 2012| url-status = dead}} describing simple building techniques involves guiding and grafting live branches together; including a system of v-shaped lateral cuts used to bend and curve individual trunks and branches in the direction of a design, with reaction wood soon closing the wounds to hold the curve.

He envisioned growing trees so that it constituted walls during growth, thereby enabling the use of young trees for building. He never built a living home, but he grew a {{convert|394|ft|m|adj=on}} wall of Canadian poplars to help keep the snow off a section of train tracks. His illustrated ideas have inspired many other artists to attempt to grow a house of trees.