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Unique Treehouse

Designer and woodwork master David Rasmussen has created this playful adult treehouse in Colorado, in conjunction with Green Line Architects. As explained on the GreenLine site, the treehouse is supported on four log columns, since the standing trees weren’t sturdy enough to support the structure. Another benefit is that you could pick your four point locations, and build on a sturdier, more rectangular footprint. The structure looks anything but rectangular, built one-of-a-kind with all handcraft detail.

You won’t find another one of these in a catalog.

Two Hiking Emergency Shelters

Although the purpose of these structures is for emergency – for example evacuations, earthquakes and homeless people – there are several ideas here that can be transposed into backyard or remote getaways for one to as many as four people. WebUrbanist provides sixteen different examples of emergency shelter, some real and others proposed designs.

Baumraum Treehouse

BaumRaum is the German expression for “Tree Space”. This company designs and builds unique custom tree houses throughout Europe. The quality and finish is more like a piece of fine furniture. As they describe them on their website, treehouses are “ . . . a promise of adventure for the kids, a retreat for the adults, a romantic hideaway close to nature.”

There appears to be a new category in the hospitality industry – getaway rentals. One company that has entered the market at the luxury end in the U.K. is Natural Retreats. They provide personal outdoor structures for overnight rental in various locations throughout the British countryside. Their main focus is to promote enjoyment of outdoor physical activities in pastoral settings.

While being described as naturally sensitive development, what’s most different about the concept is that the structures are more like getaways than hotel rooms. Although fashioned within a community development, each unit is freestanding and more like a luxurious campsite than a hotel room. The buildings are designed to blur the boundaries of formal interior room divisions, and also between the enclosed space and its natural surrounds. Large expanses of glass bring the outdoors inside, and an open plan promotes efficient use of space.

The company claims that materials chosen for construction reflect their commitment to both quality and sustainability. They also seek to develop a low carbon footprint, and energy conservation.

Here’s an imaginative little getaway space for the modernists among us, recalling Richard Meier’s work. It’s called the micro compact home, abbreviated “mc-h”. The lightweight compact dwelling sleeps one or two people, all in a cube measuring approximately 8’-0 on each side. It is capable of adaptations to a variety of sites and circumstances, and contains functioning spaces of sleeping, working / dining, cooking and hygiene. Develop in Austria, it is currently available for shipment throughout Europe. The m-ch is to make its US debut in the summer of 2008 at The Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of the exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling. It will be on display from from 20 July through 20 October 2008.

The Grand-daddy of American getaway space has to be Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond, built in Massachusetts in 1856. Thoreau’s philosophy and writings underscore a lifestyle of simplicity and resonance with nature. He is also often cited as a legendary example of rugged American individualism and personal independence.

Thoreau built his cabin himself with simple hand tools, and he cut and dressed his own lumber on-site. Although the original cabin no longer stands, a replica has been built near the pond. His heat source was a cast-iron wood-burning stove, set within a masonry hearth.

Now part of the Massachusetts Forests and Parks system, Walden Pond State Reservation maintains a rebuilt copy of Thoreau’s cabin and 462 acres of protected open space. Visitors from all over the world visit the pond and woods that inspired Thoreau.

In 1968, at the age of 51, Dick Proenneke left his engineering job in the Pacific Northwest and moved to a remote area of Alaska – alone, and in the wilderness. Between spring and fall seasons, he hand-hewed a personal “Go-2” near Twin Lakes, where he lived for over thirty years. In addition to this miraculous feat of rugged individualism and self-sufficiency, he set up a 16mm camera and filmed himself during the entire building process!
Proenneke’s story is one of awesome wonder, and his home site is now a national landmark. See a summary of his life and times in Alaska on you-tube.

Jay Shafer lives in a very cool tiny house of his own design. Seeing is believing, so you’ve got to see what he’s designed for himself on youtube.

I especially like his innovative details for managing daily living activities and requirements in such a small space. His heating system (Dickinson marine stove, which you can find in our site under the components category) is space saving, and efficient. Who could imagine the warmth of a glowing fire in such small quarters? Jay also designs and manufactures houses through The Tumbleweed Small House Company

In a post-modern version of the Airstream, Architect Andy Thompson has developed an intriguing, green and sustainable mobile-home-style living quarters in approximately 300 sf of space. Dubbed the miniHome, it incorporates features such as solar power, wind turbine, a green roof, and a rainwater collection system.

Clearly for those who have modernist tastes, the interior spaces however are very clean, green and multi-functional.

YouTube Link