There are many artists in the world that have left works that are living as a model of inspiration for the generations to come. I came across such an artist during my travel to Vienna, Austria. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist, one of the best known during the 20^th century. His work of art is based on the principle that “art must serve a purpose, create a long lasting values and certainly have the courage to strive for beauty in harmony with nature”. This was his mission. His exemplary work of art together with some of his architectural standing in the city of Vienna and in many parts of the world are a testament to his belief to recreate life in harmony with nature.

He talks about different layers of human body and focuses on the third layer that is the skin. He says that skin and clothes have recently undergone most change in the recent times where we are no longer in harmony with nature.

“Paradises can only be made with our own hands, with our own creativity in harmony with the free creativity if nature”.

Standing tree tenant house as designed by Hundertwasser

One of the most intriguing aspects of his work is associated with the need to change the urban homes- to make it more natural. On this basis he started a project called “Tree Tenants are the Ambassadors of the Free Forests in the City”He brings a positive hope in the vertical sterile high walls of the cities through his project.

He states the following:

• Tree tenants create oxygen
• Tree tenants improve the city climate and the well being of the dwellers. They bring the needed moisture into the desert climate of the city, reduce the dry-humid and cold-warm contrast.
• Tree tenants are like vacuum cleaners and more. They swallow the finest and poisonous dust. There is less dust in the apartment and in the street.
• Tree tenants swallow noise. They reduce the echoes of the city-noise and create quietness.
• Tree tenants protect you like curtains from the outside view and create shelter.
• Tree tenants give shadow in summer but let sunlight through in winter when the leaves have fallen.
• Butterflies and birds come back. Beauty and joy of life come back. Living quality is improved by having a piece of nature of one’s own.
• The tree tenant is a symbol of reparation towards nature which is extremely visible. We restore to nature a tiny piece of the huge territories which man has taken away from nature illegally.

Kathmandu in this time has a great need to acknowledge the philosophy  of Hundertwasser to make our city more liveable and to rebuild the city where it is possible to –walk around without the feeling of suffocation with dust; to have space for children to run around; to go sit in the quiet and lay on the grass , space for young adults to climb trees. We all deserve a city that is living with birds, butterflies, frogs and all life forms. This is our right as citizens. This is the right of the nature that has its existence well before we decided to take over.

In the right words of Hundertwasser (1991): “The tree tenant is a giver. It is a piece of nature, a piece of homeland, a piece of spontaneous vegetation in the anonymous and sterile city desert, a piece of nature which can develop without the rationalistic control of man and his technology (Hundertwasser 1991).”

Lets plant trees; lets grow gardens and work to make a liveable Kathmandu city.