architecture

incredible treehouses

until a few days ago i didn’t really appreciate treehouses. sure i played in a couple when i was younger and i wanted to live in the ewok village for a couple of days but since the age of 14 i just assumed they’d always remain the same.

now i actually want to buy/build one and raise a family in it. sod houses, i’m retiring in a treemansion 100ft in the air with a slide down to the ground.

treehouses are the future.

(click on pics for mightier versions)

nicholas von der bosch’s treehouse project

this spherical motorised treehouse is one of the best things i’ve ever seen.
i’ve searched high and low for information about the project and emailed the contact in the video but to no avail, all i do know is that the genius behind it goes by the name of nicholas von der bosch and the sphere exists/existed in westfalen, germany. anyone know anything else about it?

free spirit spheres

sticking with the spherical theme, these incredible looking beauties are called ‘free spirit spheres’ and are handcrafted by a guy called tom chudleigh up in canada. the spheres consist of a wooden frame and skin, all of which is then covered by a ‘woven fibreglass roving set in epoxy’ - this gives it a varnished look. they’re even ‘wired up for power, sound and telephone’.

for the largest version (which has 3 beds, microwave, sink and fridge), prices start at $150′000. you can even rent them out for a weekend.

wow. check out the website here for a lot more info, photos and prices.

alnwick gardens - biggest treehouse in the world

this monster of a treehouse is worth a whopping £3.3m.

it’s situated in alnwick, northumberland and contains a shop, restaurant and private dining room. i’m not too sure about this ‘treehouse’ - it’s elevated above the ground and there’s a lot of wood around but the bigger they get the less magical treehouses seem to look.

world’s highest treehouse

talk about bare-bones. this treehouse, the highest ever, consisted of 2 platforms suspended more than 200ft above the ground and was used for 5 months from the end of 2004. it was inhabited by enviromentalists in tasmania’s styx valley forest (home to the world’s largest hardwood trees) and could house 6 people in tents along with a kitchen and washroom.

the protesters were hoping that the treehouse would go some way to stopping logging in australia.

coolest treehouse ever?

this is 4treehouse, possibly the sleekest treehouse ever created.

it was made in 2003 by lukasz kos, at the time a masters degree student at the university of toronto and the slatted masterpiece has been built around 4 trees. as you can see above, when it gets dark the whole thing resembles a huge lantern.

incredible.

green magic resort, north kerala

in the past 10 years there’s been a huge increase in the amount of ‘treehouse hotels’ cropping up all over the world as people realise that treehouses can actually be extremely liveable environments as well as stunning to look at. the photos above are of a frikkin’ stunning treehouse at the green magic resort in kerala, india. the 90ft high accomodation can be reached by using a brilliant water-lift.

the independent’s ‘5 best treehouse hotels’ can be stared at here.

papua tree people

of course not every society sees houses made of brick as the norm.

the photos above are of houses in papua, apparently the korowai and kombai tribes are forced to live in treehouses up to 40ft above ground level as a result of mosquitoes and ‘age-old rivalry’.

the fact that they can manage to build houses that high and keep them from falling is astounding.

takashi kobayashi

the amazing treehouse above was created by takashi kobayashi, one of japan’s leading treehouse creators, for a nescafe commercial and still stands in hokkaido.

you can check out his other treehouses on his website and read a nice article and interview with him here.

treehouses of the future

in the future you’ll be able to download porn straight into your brain simply by thinking the word ‘filth’ - fact.

you’ll also be able to grow your own house thanks to these chaps.

the project is called ‘fab tree hab’ and each of these houses will take around 5 years to grow, the result being a living, breathing house with tree trunks for ceilings and weaved roots for walls.

the science behind this absolutely baffles me so i’ll let you read more about it at popular science. there’s also a short video below…

extras:

- check out the treehouse guide for a database of thousands of reader-submitted treehouses across the globe.

- there’s a nice timelapse video of an old-fashioned treehouse being built below:

- click on the photo below for ‘extreme treehouses’ at popular mechanics.

- fancy paying someone to build a treemansion for you? treehouse company look like the guys to call (they were responsible for the largest in the world) as long as you’ve got some cash spare.

- treehouse by design is a great blog about all things treehousey with guides, photos and videos.

- treehouse area is another good site but it concentrates more on the construction side of treehouses.

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