A contemporary Tree(house)hotel

The philosophy behind the Treehotel in Harads, a village in Sweden, is quite simple: 'Why not create a hotel that gives people a chance to experience nature amongst the tree-tops, while also providing a uniquely designed housing experience?'. The aim of the initiators and owners of this hotel is to consider ecological values and make minimal environmental impact. They believe that the forest is the most important and it should be preserved and protected.

Among the most impressive, and my favourite, 'rooms' of Treehotel is the Mirrorcube. Designed by architects Tham & Videgård, is a lightweight metal construction, 4x4x4m size, covered with mirrored walls that camouflage it reflecting their surroundings. The visitor can enjoy the great view in the trees from all the sides of the room without being seen from the outside. To prevent birds from flying into the mirrored walls, they have been clad with infrared film. The colour is invisible to humans, but visible to the birds.

The rest of the rooms are The Bird's Nest, The Cabin, The Blue Cone and The Ufo, each designed by some of the Scandinavia’s leading architects. The rooms range from 15 to 30sqm and they are suspended 4-6 meters above ground in the pines. The material and construction techniques make as little environmental impact as possible. The rooms are built on live trees without destroying it and no tree was chopped down or damaged while building. Mostly architects tried to use local construction companies. Each room has a modern, environmentally friendly combustion toilet, cleaning and recycling rain-water pumps and electric underfloor heating.

The Bird's Nest

INREDNINGS GRUPPEN architects' idea was simple and inspired by the nest of the birds. The interior is a modern and luxurious room with discreet openings hidden by the outdoor decorative branches.

The Cabin
CYRÉN & CYRÉN architects wanted to design apart from a room also a big ramp that would lead to a balcony in order to take advantage of the incredible view to the forest and river.  The Cabin is like a capsule, a foreign body in the trees.

The Blue Cone
SANDELL SANDBERG believe that a treehouse should be simple. So they designed this simple wooden structure covered with laminated birch wood.

The Ufo

While working on the Bird’s Nest, which is largely in harmony with its surroundings, INREDNINGS GRUPPEN architects had the idea of creating an entirely different environment. So they designed a room that looks externally like a flying saucer, with the classic form we all can imagine, stack between the trees.

The prices though are outrageously high but it worth even visiting this hotel to see the rooms from  the outside and experience their awesome design. You can also have a look at the video below where the hotel's owners talk about its rooms.

| via Busy Being Fabulous, HomeDesignPics, Arch(Dez)Art |