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Limestone, palm fronds, ceiling fans, big screens, tables, chairs, party time.
But can you name where this is at?
Whether you call it a tiki hut, a chickee hut, or something else altogether, this distinct open shelter made for chilling in the heat and rain is found all over South Florida.
Chickee Huts originate with the tribes people of Florida; Seminole, Miccosukee, Tekesta, Caloosa, who knows who else. The Miami News described Chickee Huts in 1949 as "a hut on stilts without walls, deep in the Everglades."
Today, everybody has adopted them. And similar structures have existed across Latin America and the Caribbean for millenia.
From backyard barbeques to beachside getdowns, to the river itself where the tall grass grows, one thing is for sure, the structure is purpose built to the environment, its variations, and extreme weather.
Travel the main streets or the back roads and you are bound to see all styles and customizations including full range kitchens, leather couches, and outdoor a/c units all the way down to plastic chairs and recycled wood.
But with all the new millionaires and billionaires in the area pouring capital into their new bought homes and skyscrapers, luxury chickee huts are set to reach new levels of bang and buck.
Full automation, lights, sound, internet, mesh networks, motorized recessed cabinetry, gun safes, bluetooth enabled smoking grills, hibachi flat top skillets, five hundred pound yellow fin tuna cleaning stations, marble counters and floors, solar powered everything, fresh crystal spring water storage tanks and keg taps, all that.
Color changing motion activated and audio synched LED lighting, cabana ez-chairs, oxygen enriched mist machines, IV drip system chaise loungers, Egyptian thread count towel holders, water slide launch station, oversize lululemon moisture wicking deck chairs, natuzzi leather sectional couches, aerosolized scent technology, sun shields, expensive exotic tropical plants and flowers. The possibilities are endless.
In fact, the chickee modernization movement may have started in 1964, when new appliances were introduced to the Miccosukee via a government program that had goals set to achieve on a schedule. At the time, the Tribal Chairman Buffalo Tiger said to the Miami News, "That's the difference between the Indian and The White Man. The white man is always chasing time; The Indian enjoys life."
If you can say where this one is, you get one free.
One free idea to building your own to hook it up how you want to.