MIND-BLOWING BACKYARD TREEHOUSES
Of course, our backyard theme this week had to include our ultimate backyard fantasy: an amazing treehouse! So we surveyed some of the most beautiful creative treehouses on the planet at the moment.
Whether you fancy treehouses as throwbacks to childhood, escapes, places to contemplate life, or places to commune with nature, you can find inspiration from a breathtaking array of designs, from contemporary to rustic. They all give you a different perspective on the world.
Some treehouses shown here were designed and built by people—for their own pleasure, in their own backyards. Some reside in hotels and resorts—for your pleasure, too. Some are masterworks, created by award-winning architects and designers. In every case, they are handcrafted with love, focused on sustainability, and are testaments to arboreal passion.
“Treehouse Masters,” a new show on Animal Planet, follows Pete Nelson, a treehouse guru known as the “tree whisperer,” as he and his crew build eight gorgeous retreats during the course of the eight-part series.
Nelson’s company, Treehouse and Supply, creates, supplies, and consults for treehouse constructions all over the world, for backyards, hotels, resorts, camps, museums, and parks. “I get calls all the time for kids’ tree houses,” Nelson said in a recent interview with the New York Times, “But I think the adults who are placing the calls are hiding the fact that the treehouse is for them.” Although we do love our children unconditionally, the $80,000 to $360,000 price tags on these arboreal abodes is a bit of a clue here, we think.
Treehouse and Supply is one of more than 30 businesses in Europe and USA now, that specialize in constructing treehouses, including those built around tree trunks, in tree canopies, and on stilts, among trees. “It’s just being up in the trees that now defines a treehouse” says Nelson. “It’s all about sharing in the energy of the tree. However you do that is fair game.”
Hang Nga's Treehouse, in Da Lat, Viet Nam, known to the locals as "The Crazy House," is a different sort of treehouse, built within the trunk of a fairytale-like tree. Hang Nga is named after the mythological moon fairy. It is owned by the daughter of the ex-president of Vietnam, who studied architecture in Moscow. It looks like a place where Hansel & Gretel might have gone for an acid trip or where Dali or Gaudi might have borrowed some inspiration.
Escape to a Free Spirit Sphere, set in the midst of the west coast rainforest of Vancouver Island, Canada. These handcrafted spheres are suspended from a triangle of trees, like pendants from webs of rope. The design concept is based on sailboat construction and rigging, a “marriage of treehouse and sailboat technology,” with a touch of biomimicry.
Or perhaps you prefer a geodesic sphere experience, like you’ll find in the O2 Treehouse.
While it’s industrial Bucky Fuller-inspired design doesn’t scream “nature” visually, O2T’s mission is to “...inspire humanity to reconsider how we can more harmlessly co-exist with nature.” These are sustainable structures that connect residents with their environment.
They use Forest Stewardship Initiative (FSI) and Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) woods, canopies are made from recycled plastic milk bottles, and materials are sourced from local vendors when possible. All the finishes are either water-based, soy-based, or recycled inks or dyes. They even offset travel and shipping emissions through CarbonFund.org.
You can purchase them from O2 here and put them in your own backyard.
Photo: Courtesy of O2 Treehouse
Keeping in line with globular sci-fi-looking designs, check out the Redwoods Treehouse, a gorgeous drop of sinewy slats shown below.
The Redwoods Treehouse is an award-winning futuristic tree pod in Warkworth, north of Auckland, New Zealand. It is available for hire for conferences, accommodating up to 30 people. It was commissioned as part of a marketing campaign by Yellow Pages, with all materials sourced from their local directories. To get to the Treehouse, stroll along the elevated walkway, built using redwood milled on site.
Photo: Courtesy of BlueFish
Treehotel is unique contemporary design hotel made up of tree rooms set in the middle of the wilds of Sweden.
Each tree room offers a fantastic view of the Lule River valley, with its miles of forest and raging river. The hotel was inspired by the film "The Tree Lover” by Jonas Selberg Augustsen. It’s a tale of three men from the city who want to go back to their roots by building a treehouse together. While all of the property’s treehouses are beyond spectacular, if we have to pick a favorite, it would be The Mirrorcube. The delightful treehouse is camouflaged by mirrored walls that reflect their surroundings.To prevent birds from flying into the mirrored walls, they have been clad with infrared film. The color is invisible to humans, but visible to the birds.
Architect, artist, magician, Robert Harvey Oshatz designed this house for the tree-loving Wilkinson family, which sits on their wooded backyard outside of Portland, Oregon. The Wilkinsons are also music enthusiasts and wanted a house that not only became part of the natural landscape but also addressed the flow of music.
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Photo: Lynn Tran. Tran/Hazen Treehouse
Richard Hazen and Lynn Tran are living their dream in a dream treehouse built in and around a huge Australian pine tree on Anna Maria Island off Florida’s Gulf Coast. Their backyard is a beautiful beach. They share the wealth with visitors who stay in their four adjacent bungalows, known as “Angelinos Sea Lodge.” Their magnificent double-decker showpiece is under attack by the local government agencies, who want it removed due to some purported zoning violations. If you want to help them keep their treehouse, you can sign their petition here.
If you need any more brilliant ideas, check out Tran/Hazen’s Cool Treehouse Gallery, which has a great collection of treehouse designs on their Pinterest board to inspire you.
For more inspiring treehouse designs check out this post on Mother Nature Network.
For more history, design inspiration, and treehouse information galore, check out
"Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air
My heart beat…
O love
O sunlight of my life
Here I am
Enlighten me
Guide me
Eyes closed, I stand with you to the end of time
I’m not a poet and want to be
I love my beautiful and great life in the tree
I want to live until the end of the centuries
Please save me and let me stand the test of time
A cool tree house in a pine tree on the beach of Anna Maria island
Created with love by Lynn Tran and Richard Hazen
Poem adapted from Lynn’s great grand uncle (written in 1945, T.V.T. 1915-1988)
