Hasta La Ideas

The long narrow bodies of snakes inspired the shapes of this pair of matching woodland hideaways that stretch out between the trees of a park in northern Portugal (+ slideshow).

Designed by architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, the structures each offer accommodation for one or two inhabitants at the Pedras Salgadas Park, a rural holiday resort on the edge of a spa town.

The architects aimed to “recreate the fantasy of tree houses”, by designing spaces that sit amongst the tree branches. Rather than climbing upwards, the structures maintain a flat level, which gradually becomes more elevated as the ground slopes away underneath.

Both buildings are constructed from timber, but are externally clad with slate tiles that create the impression of rough scales.

“The characteristic design associated with the slates and the wood on the base suggests a snake gliding between the trees,” said the designers. “Like a wild animal in its natural habitat, the house suddenly appears in the visual field of the observer.”

Narrow columns anchor the structures to the ground and long narrow bridges lead from the hillside towards each entrance.

Inside, symmetrical interiors offer combined living and sleeping areas with a kitchen and washroom on one side and a toilet and closet on the other.

Sustainable technologies such as solar panels and water recycling allow the buildings to be self-sufficient, while low-energy lighting and well-insulated walls ensure that electricity and heating are used as efficiently as possible.

This isn’t the first project Luís Rebelo de Andrade has worked on at the Pedras Salgadas Park – last year he collaborated with young Portuguese architect Diogo Aguiar on a series of woodland cabins.

Other tree houses on Dezeen include a hotel room that looks like a bird’s nest and a treetop artists’ studio. See more tree houses »

Photography is by Ricardo Oliveira Alves.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Tree Snake Houses

Along with the project Pedras Salgadas Park by architects Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Tiago Rebelo de Andrade, came the challenge of creating an object that could recreate the fantasy of the tree houses.

The project for these houses was developed in partnership with the Modular System Company. The idea was to get an object that would be far away from the orthogonality and from pre-established concepts associated with the modular construction.

The characteristic design associated with the slates and the wood on the base suggests a snake gliding between the trees. Like a wild animal in its natural habitat, the house suddenly appears in the visual field of the observer.

The choice of materials gives an instant sense of connection with nature at the same time it establishes a coherent image of the proposal into a perfect symbiosis between the house and the Park.

The architects made use of new technology already tested in prototypes that allow a weightless easy-carrying construction. Native raw material, slate and wood used in the finishing also promote the integration at the same time it confers invisibility to the houses, not allowing these to take the chief role which belongs to the centennial Park itself.

Sustainability and ecology have always been one of the major concerns during the development of the project. The consistency and rationale for the intervention were attained by the layers and reinforced insulation, heating systems, water reuse, water solar panels, the low consumption lighting system using LED technology as well as the option of keeping the soil without any impermeable system, among other solutions. Each house comprises a studio with a bathroom and a kitchen.

Thus, the two Tree Snake Houses of Pedras Salgadas Park are objects that, using similar materials and technologies, point out to our imaginary: the primitive hut and the wild animal.

Developed by the architects Luís Rebelo De Andrade And Tiago Rebelo De Andrade in cooperation with Modular System the project also foresees multiple purposes, which can be adapted to different landscapes and climates.

More models of these houses like the Mountain Snake House, the River Snake House and the Sand Snake House, whose dimensions and materials are easily adapted to various climates and regions, are being developed and will soon be available to the public. It will then be possible to acquire one of these houses and to benefit from different situations such as coastal areas, riverbanks, mountain or urban environments.

Architects: Luís Rebelo de Andrade & Tiago Rebelo de Andrade
Collaborators: Madalena Rebelo de Andrade, Raquel Jorge, Pedro Baptista Dias
Project Area: 27,00 sqm
Client: UNICER
Constructor: Modular System

The post Tree Snake Houses by Luís and
Tiago Rebelo de Andrade appeared first on Dezeen.

News: architect Sami Rintala is constructing a twenty-ton treehouse for Swedish hotel Treehotel.

Named the Five Leaf Clover, the structure will join the cluster of treehouse hotel rooms that make up the Treehotel, which is located amongst the forests in Harads, northern Sweden.

The room was designed by Rintala, of Finnish studio Rintala Eggertsson Architects, to be the largest of the Treehotel’s six treehouses. At twenty tons, it will be almost three times as heavy as the seven-ton Cabin room and construction is already underway.

“At Treehotel we always strive to push limits with our environmental work, architecture and engineering,” said co-founder Kent Lindvall. “The Five Leaf Clover is clear evidence of this, as nothing remotely similar has ever been done before.”

The building will be attached to six pine trees and hover six metres above the ground, so visitors will have to climb a two-storey-high staircase to enter.

Above: floor plan – click above for larger image

The 53-square-metre suite will contain three bedrooms and will sleep up to six guests, but could also be used as a conference room for up to twelve people. The exterior is being clad in weathered steel, while the interior is being lined with plywood.

The project is due to complete before Christmas.

Other treehouse hotel rooms at the Treehotel include a huge nest with a retractable staircase and a suspended box covered in mirrors.

See more stories about treehouses »

The post Twenty-ton treehouse
under construction in Sweden appeared first on Dezeen.

A weaver bird’s nest was the inspiration for this wooden treehouse in Devon by London-based Jerry Tate Architects.

The architects worked with students to design and build the temporary structure on a farm as part of this year’s Dartmoor Arts Project.

Making use of the oak tree’s position on a steep hill, a walkway was built to slope gently up to the treehouse.

At the end of the walkway is a small pod with circular seating. Jerry Tate said: “The form was inspired by a weaver bird’s nest, which looks dramatic but is safe and secure.”

The timber was milled on site from locally felled spruce, larch and western red cedar.

We’ve featured lots of treehouses on Dezeen, including a pod that hangs between trees in Dorset, UK. Have a look at our treehouses archive for more.

Photographs are by Michael Smallcombe.

Here’s more information from the architects:

Jerry Tate Architects worked alongside students at this summer’s Dartmoor Arts Week to design and construct a striking temporary treehouse. A central part of the ‘Spatial Structures’ course, the treehouse was completed in only five days as a collaborative exercise between students, Jerry Tate Architects and carpenter Henry Russell. The robust 10sqm structure includes an accessible walkway and a 1.8m diameter ‘pod’ which provides a circular seating element.

The brief for the treehouse came from the owners of a local farm who wanted a safe play-space for their grandchildren. The first stage of the project involved surveying the farm in order to identify the most appropriate tree in terms of setting and structural capacity. Jerry Tate said: “The form was inspired by a weaver bird’s nest which looks dramatic but is safe and secure. Nature is a sublime designer.”

The treehouse was constructed around an existing mature oak tree on the local farm. The materials were milled on site from locally felled spruce, larch and western red cedar and the structure required only two mechanical fixtures to the tree itself, with the majority of structural stability maintained by the shape and positioning of the structure.

Much of the treehouse was constructed from thin ‘lathes’ of spruce, some of which were made into glue-laminated ribs to give structural form, and some of which were ‘woven’ into the structure to provide enclosure and further structural capacity.

The oak tree is situated on a steep slope, which allows easy access to a high level and good views over the farm which features other temporary timber structures on the site, from previous Dartmoor Arts Week events. This is the second year that Jerry Tate Architects has been commissioned by the Dartmoor Arts Project and last year the practice worked with students to create a freestanding raised storytelling platform in an adjacent field. The project cost £600 and will stay on the site for two years.

Project team
Architects: Jerry Tate Architects
Carpenter: Henry Russell
Teaching Assistant: Hugo McCloud
Technician: Paul Dove
Students: Una Haran, Rachel Slater, Dil Phagami Magar, Rory Keenan, Robert Turner, Mima Kearns, Yasmin Eva, Katcha Bilek, Jacob Long, Owen Lewis, Tim Pointer and Emma Tatham

Movie: Dartmoor Treehouse by Jerry Tate Architects
.

The post Dartmoor Treehouse
by Jerry Tate Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This cluster of offices in northern France are raised above the ground like treehouses, supported by a forest of roughly sawn wooden columns.

Designed by Paris studio Projectiles as an extension to a carpenter’s workshop, the string of buildings is sandwiched between two existing warehouses and creates a bridge between them.

Bridges also connect the blocks to each other, while an external staircase provides a link between the offices and a picnic area below.

One of the six blocks steps down to ground level to serve as an entrance lobby, containing a second staircase crafted entirely from square-cut wooden beams.

If treehouses are your thing then see all our stories about them here.

Photography is by Vincent Fillon.

Here’s some more information from Projectiles:

Branched Offices

Épône, 78

In May 2009, the agency Projectiles was contacted by MD, a carpenter quite unlike any other.

Art collector, passionate about sailing boats, he entrusted Reza Azard, Hervé Bouttet and Daniel Mészàros with the creation of an office complex as an extension to his workshop.

At the time, two warehouses of 1,500 square metres were situated twenty metres apart. The back of the parcel was free.

The extension that the three men proposed is introduced between the two existing volumes within the authorised outline limitation, joins with the two warehouses and branches out towards the far end of the parcel.

The different volumes, perched four metres on top of roughly-hewn beams, are placed freely within the authorised limitation. They are connected by interior footbridges.

The construction is entirely built in wood,including the framework. The carpentry consists of a unique window dimension, sometimes fixed, sometimes opening.

The complex is immersed in an arboretum made up of twenty trees of a dozen different species, offering blossom throughout the year. This architecture introduced into the heart of an ordinary industrial estate, represents a veritable heterotopia.

Client:
Séquoia Company
Woodwork – Layout

Architects:
Projectiles, architects
Reza Azard – Hervé Bouttet – Daniel Mészáros
Serge Titier, économist
EVP, structures consultants

Surface: 450 m2
Budget: 840 000 € (excl. tax)

Schedule:
Study may 2009 – june 2010
Construction site july 2010 – may 2011
Completion summer 2011

This tree-top hotel room by Swedish architects Cyrén & Cyrén is accessed via a bridge leading from the hilly forest to an entrance on the roof.

The Cabin hangs from the trees and has a roof terrace overlooking the forest.

This project is one of five rooms of the Tree Hotel in Harads, northern Sweden.

Five out of 25 planned rooms are constructed and open to the public. See our earlier stories on  The Bird’s Nest by Inrednin Gsgruppen and Tree Hotel by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter.

More stories about treehouses on Dezeen »
More projects in Sweden on Dezeen »

The following is from the tree hotel:

The site of The Cabin is chosen with regards to our ideal: high ground with a steep slope, providing a great view of the valley of the Lule River.

When visiting Harads to view possible sites, we formulated an idea around a horizontal approach: a footbridge leading to a spacious deck. It offers the potential for future expansion, with additional tree houses and footbridges (as well as viewing platforms and places to rest).

Click above for larger image

The basic shape of the deck comes from the supporting trees in the slope. The actual tree house is suspended from the deck. This will hide the volume of the building to a certain degree.

Click above for larger image

The deck is slightly separated from the building in order to make it appear smaller and also to allow the building its own expression. We played around with the angles and rounded off the corners lengthwise. It now looks like a capsule or cabin, an expression we feel comfortable with.

Click above for larger image

While discussing the façade we decided to try an unconventional solution: engineered fabrics used on lorries and trailer covers. Manufacturers in this line of business use fasteners, fixtures and techniques that would be suitable, as well as intriguing, for this tree house.

See also:

.

The Bird’s Nest by Inrednin Gsgruppen	Tree Hotel by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter	Treehouse by Nicko Björn Elliott