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care to respect the formof the host trees. Their Langeais
design, for instance, is a play area for children located in
the grounds of the Château de Langeais a few hours from
Nantes. Built fromcedar, its winding structure of 55 steps
and six stairways curves around the trunk in symbiotic
fashion. Their Kapellerput tree house in Eindhoven, in
the Netherlands, is similarly sprawling, with a total area
of 165m
2
. This one is built for conferences and business
meetings, but it’s equally as inspired by its surroundings.
Perhaps one of themost surprising – and eyecatching –
tree houses can be found inHarads, Sweden, in the forests
to the north of Stockholm. The Treehotel is a collection of
seriously impressive rooms, each of themunique in their
design. For instance, theMirrorcube, created by the firm
Tham&Videgård is a 4m
2
cubemade largely of lightweight,
mirrored aluminium – not the favouritematerial of most
tree-house designers. There aremodern comforts inside,
like a kitchenette and a double bed; but, most impressively,
this roomgives occupants a 360° view of the forest and,
from the outside, even appears to actually disappear into its
surroundings, making a decidedly ecological statement.
Today, one of the easiest places to discover a tree house
is in a hotel or resort that features rooms perched high
above the ground. Given the rising interest in ecologically
responsible holidays, they can be found on every continent.
In France, for instance, Natura Cabana (
naturacabana.fr
)
offers a number of decidedly rustic tree-house rooms on
the grounds of the Château deMalleret in theMedoc
region just outside of Bordeaux. Breathtaking in their
own right, theymake for a truly novel way to enjoy the fine
wine-producing domain that’s nearby. The hotel also offers
an interesting package where guests can stay one night in a
tree house and one night in the Château deMalleret.
It’s all a far cry from the ancient structures that helped
humans escape a hostile world below. Today, they are places
of relative luxury, where hot water flows and internet is
accessible. But, even if they aren’t related to their origins
in every way, they do still offer one thing that’s ever more
valuable: an opportunity to find peace
and proximity to nature in a world that
increasingly denies what used to be part and
parcel of existence.
‘TreeHouses, Fairy TaleCastles in theAir,’
published by Taschen, is out next month,
priced £44.99
Below,
Magnolie undTanne, designed byAndreas
Wenning, in north-westernGermany;
right,
a play
house designed byDansmonArbre for visitors
and their children in the grounds of the Château de
Langeais, outside Tours, in France
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