Treehouse of the year

'The Faraway Treehouse’ in Norwich has been named UK’s Top Treehouse in a competition run by Center Parcs.

The winning treehouse was built by the Jennings family from Norwich as a joint project between dad Matthew and his six-year-old daughter Ruby, with mum Becki acting as assistant. The design was inspired by Ruby's love of the Enid Blyton series of Faraway Tree books and was built using recycled wood sourced by Matthew, an architectural technologist.

A shortlist of ten announced earlier this summer included treetop creations with double-length slides and climbing frames as well as family-made structures that has been passed down multiple generations. But the judging panel - made up of adventurer Steve Backshall, CEO of Center Parcs, Martin Dalby, and Center Parcs’ Chief Treehouse Builder Tom Courtney - were especially impressed by the imagination behind ‘The Faraway Treehouse’, the teamwork involved and the ongoing commitment to improving and evolving the treehouse as a space that the entire family can enjoy.

“Ruby and I spent almost every weekend for three months working tirelessly to build something that matched her creativity and we’re so proud of what we have made," said Matthew. "Not only does The Faraway Treehouse give us so much joy as a family, it just shows that a small budget and quality time spent together can really turn into something special. This is just the beginning, if I have my way we will keep adding to the garden for years to come.”

Steve Backshall added: “I think one of the coolest things about it is the little touches from fairy doors and windows, to a ship's bell to announce your arrival and the signs that invite you in – it’s simply a place that is meant to make your imagination run wild. It’s not just a building, this treehouse tells a tale and in my opinion, any place that can do that is really very special.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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The Quiet Treehouse

Treehouse specialist Blue Forest hasbeen working with Quiet Mark (the trading arm of the Noise Abatement Society) and John Lewis to develop a tranquil tree-home with next generation sound engineering. The Quiet Treehouse will be unveiled at the Ideal Home Show from 14-30 March 2014 at London’s Earls Court and will be donated for permanent use by Chestnut Treehouse children’s hospice in Sussex and will provide the children and their families with a safe and stimulating environment in which to play, relax and share time together.

Inspired by the shape of a small coppice of trees, three primary trunks support the cocoon-like shedworkingesque structure which is accessed via stairs to the main floor. Its design can actually be installed independently of a host tree.

Andy Payne, Managing Director at Blue Forest, said: “So many temporary structures for shows are designed to only be up for a short while and are then dismantled and the material thrown out which is a tremendous waste. A key challenge of this treehouse project was to design something that could be installed at the Ideal Home Show in only seven days but that would be durable and long-lasting, providing real value for its final home at Chestnut Tree House Hospice.”

Visitors to The Quiet Treehouse will learn about the power of sounds in our homes and lives. The experience will include personal sound-portraits, a Wild Sanctuary animal sound archive and a chance to win an array of Quiet Mark awarded luxury technology products. The treehouse will also be full of the latest quiet gadgets  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Quiet Mark Treehouse

Treehouse specialists Blue Forest have been in touch with some details of their fabulous design for The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (July 8-13). It's been put together in conjunction with John Lewis.

“This year's show will focus on the themes of ‘Grow, inspire and escape’ and the treehouse will reinforce these ideas," said Simon Paye, director at Blue Forest. "The extraordinary stand-alone treehouse concept was inspired by the shape of a small copse of oak trees. Its bold contemporary design can be installed independently of a host tree yet still provides the user with the feeling that they are high in the tree tops looking down on the world below.”

Suspended above the ground, 26 huge laminated timber ribs surround the treehouse like the canopy of an ancient tree. Each of the 6m high timber ribs is finished with a sustainable timber product called Kebony, a sustainable alternative to tropical hardwood. At ground level, three primary trunks formed from 48 interlocking timber fins support the cocoon-like creation. Each of the fins has been stained dark brown to match the external cladding of the building, reflecting the natural bark of trees.

After the show it will be donated to The Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice in West Sussex. 

The treehouse is 9m tall, 6m wide and 10m long, with a floor space of 46m2. The main platform stands 4m above the ground. The entire structure weighs 25 tonnes, and it will need to be assembled by a 45 tonne crane. Quiet Mark is the not-for-profit trading arm of the Noise Abatement Society charity which is campaigning for quieter technology in the office and at home. --------------------------------------------------------

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Spectacular Springfield treehouse goes on the market

A truly spectacular treehouse, ideal for garden office use, has just come on the market in Northumberland.

Springfield Treehouse was designed and build managed by Napper Architects of Newcastle who were also behind the iconic Alnwick Treehouse in 2004, built by Sir Robert McAlpine. Springfield is actually a twin treehouse with two turrets, both with two floors and inside ladder access, a bridge joining them together.  

It's on with various folk including Finest Properties and Sanderson Young with a £5.75m price tag which includes nearly three acres of grounds and a six bedroom house, as well as a greenhouse, gardener’s store and additional shed, plus a four-car garage.

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Garden office treehouse

The idea of a treehouse-based garden office is a pretty appealing one for most people. Treehouse specialists Blue Forest (pictured above and below) obviously feel the same way and they have a new blog post up extolling the virtues of them as "bringing an element of play and limitlessness" to normal office surroundings.

Understandably they emphasise the positive effect of the natural surroundings ("Everyone knows that nature is one of the best stress reducers, so it makes sense that outdoor workspaces are a clever way to bring a feeling of peace to your working day") and its effect on your working patterns ("Spending your working day in a treehouse office in the midst of all that mother nature has to offer will breathe new life into your ideas, allowing you to bring your work to an entirely new level.").

But for the Shedworking staff, this is perhaps an even stronger point, that it provides  a distinct separation of work and home life which is what we've argued for years, and especially in the Shedworking book. Here's what they say:

"Treehouse offices offer not only an intangible separation from work and home life, it also offers a very physical one. The simple act of returning to earth after a day in the trees will help ground you back into your personal life, hopefully allowing you to maintain a better balance between your work and home time."

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Treeshedworking Week - Artisan Tree and Treehouse

Rosemont-based Artisan Tree and Treehouse (motto: 'We will travel anywhere to build anything') build treehouses for children and grown-up chilldren. And as owner Steve rightly says:

"The practical minded have realized that a treehouse makes an ideal home office or atelier. Coupling the world's best commute, privacy that can't be beat, and a peaceful vibe that enhances concentration with the ability to write off construction and maintenance costs on your tax return, a treehouse office is a logical choice."

It's a nice site with lots of links and a particularly interesting photo-by-photo account of a build entirely on posts in a grove of young tulip poplars. They also run introductory treehouse building courses with theory and practical elements.

Blue Forest at Chelsea Flower Show

Continuing our look at shedworkingesque structures at the RHS Chelsea Flower show next month, here is Blue Forest’s exhibit which will feature a children’s treehouse. They describe The Enchanted Playhouse as "a fairy-tale retreat for young imaginations to explore, offering a unique space for adventurous play... The treehouse will be nestled amongst woodland plants, with a blue and white floral scheme and a variety of ground cover plants including ferns. In combination with the treehouse, the planting design has been created to instil a magical sense of joy and adventure synonymous with childhood memories of playing in woodland dens." It will be in the Fresh area of the show ground, on stand FR335 FR335.

Lifting the treehouse into place...this is actually a lot safer than it looks...@The_RHS #RHSChelsea #BFTreehouse pic.twitter.com/FxWzSNkPV1

— Blue Forest (@BlueForest_) May 16, 2016

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my cool treehouse: book review

Regular readers will be familiar with the work of friend of Shedworking stylist and author Jane Field-Lewis who in her excellent 'my cool...' series of books has already covered sheds, houseboats, caravans, and campervans. Jane's latest title is 'my cool treehouse' (Pavilion, £14.99 with cracking photography by Tina Hillier and lovely endpapers) and it is arguably the best so far.

Subtitled 'An inspirational guide to stylish treehouses', the book takes a close look at more than 30 treehouses around the world, from incredibly simple ones that you can attach in an eco-friendly way to trees in a matter of minutes to cleverly recycled havens of calm and spectacularly complex modern versions.

"A treehouse creates its own world," says Jane, "its own atmosphere. It's a distillation of some of the values and qualities we cherish most. Resourcefulness, shelter, exploration, safetly, and romance, all entwined with an innate childlike desire for inhabiting something that is out of reach."

There are eight categories - simple, architectural, soulful, handmade, art installations, eclectic, businesses, and modern - and each treehouse is introduced and then analysed in a 'style notes' section. There's also a useful sourcebook at the end. Naturally, it's the businesses chapter the Shedworking staff were most interested to browse - our favourite were the off-grid treehouses created by Peter Canham in the Welsh mountains. Overall, a strong contender for shedlike book of the year.

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Blue Forest at the Chelsea Flower Show

Continuing our preview of shedlike structures at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, here is a reminder that there is plenty to see in the exhibitors' areas outside the main show gardens. It's from Chelsea regular Blue Forest,who you can find on the Main Avenue at stand number MA 333, and is called The Magical Hideaway. As treehouse specialists it's not a great surprise that it focuses on a lovely Hobbit-ish treehouse, with a hillside feature and meadow garden. It's designed for young folk but can of course be enjoyed by young folk of all ages.

It was created in collaboration with landscape architecture company Randle Siddeley Limited and with help from a range of sponsors:

• DCM Surfaces– for the play surfacing
• Deepdale Nurseries – for supplying the magnificent trees
• Havwoods – for the flooring and hillside hollow internal cladding
• John Cullen Lighting – for the outdoor lighting
• Make Limited – for the handmade Oak windows and doors of the treehouse
• Marley Limited – for the Cedar shingles used on the treehouse

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Treeshedworking Week - Alnwick Gardens Treehouse

We've never got round to featuring the marvellous treehouse at Alnwick Gardens so Treeshedworking Week seems a good opportunity to rectify that laziness. The treehouse is one of the largest in the world, was opened in 2005 and is a 6,000 sq ft complex of 'turret topped cottages' linked by suspended walkways away from the main garden. The treehouse was built from Canadian Cedar, Scandinavian Redwood and English and Scots pine. The complex takes in various education and resource rooms, a restaurant (through which grow tree branches covered in leaves) and soon a tree-based play area designed to be 'safely dangerous'.

Blue Forest treehouse at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024

One of the trade stands at RHS Chelsea worth a look every year is Blue Forest's. Back again on the Main Avenue, the company will be presenting a two-storey garden treehouse (which they're calling an "entertainment tower"), co-created with landscape architecture experts Randle Siddeley Limited.

For 2024, they will be featuring in particular edible plants and fragrant botanicals which will complement the treehouse bar and entertainment deck which will offer smashing views over the show. There's also going to be a ground floor children's section with swinging seats.

“We are thrilled to unveil the Botanical Treehouse at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show,” said Andy Payne, Founder and MD of Blue Forest. “This project represents a true collaboration between nature and design, and we are delighted to once again be working with the prestigious Randle Siddeley to create something truly spectacular.”
 
This year, as ever, RHS is at Royal Hospital Chelsea in London May 21-25.

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Choosing a shed – treehouse garden offices

On a related theme, this week we look at the ultimate home office environment, the treehouse shed. And all you need is a good strong tree, preferably one with deep roots such as an oak, chestnut or apple rather than shallower ones such as sycamore. Treesheds themselves are usually built of more modest woods including Radiata Pine, and Canadian or Scandinavian Redwood.

An office with a view - and you do get a marvellous view - is not cheap and a good-sized one from leading supplier The Treehouse Company could set you back £40,000. Founder John Harris has built all sorts, even with what must be quite a worrying extra, log burning stoves. You’ll pay a similar price for a treeshed from specialists Blue Forest whose work is pictured above, but it does come with heating, lighting, broadband and phone lines, and a small kitchen. It also has a veranda for those Hemingway moments.

You can of course selfbuild if you’re feeling confident, but remember that while the views are better the higher you place your treeshed, the wind speed is greater too so working in a storm could be a bit hairy. For some practical pointers there is some useful information online at The Treehouse Guide.

If a treeshed is not a realistic possibility, you could always settle for a laptop in a hammock.

Splendid treehouse for sale

This lovely treehouse comes with a six bedroom detached house in Corbridge, currently on the market for a little under £4 million. According to Rightmove, "the twin tree house, built by the same company as The Alnwick Garden treehouse, is a highly impressive piece of architecture with timber terrace leading up to the main house."

If you fancy having a go at building one yourself, or don't have four million quid down the back of your sofa, My Garden School runs courses in treehouse design and building as the video below explains.

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Outlandia: treehouse shedworking

Outlandia is an off-grid treehouse garden office, an artist studio, meeting pklace and fieldstation in Glen Nevis, Lochaber, Scotland. It's the work of London Fieldworks and Malcolm Fraser Architects and apparently inspired by "childhood dens, wildlife hides and bothies, by forest outlaws and Japanese poetry platforms". The goal of Outlandia is to encourage links between creativity and the environment. Here's what Malcolm Fraser says about it:

Sitting half-way up the opposite side of the Glen to Ben Nevis, a visitor approaches Outlandia through the path we cut through the dense woods behind, descending out the musty dark of the trees into a big view which, from dark-to-light and framed by old, tall larches, opens-up across the Glen to the shoulder of the Ben.

The building itself sits out from a 45 degree slope: a treehouse, part-built out the trees cut down to form the site, entered across a bridge from the slope behind; a simple box, leaning-out into the view with big windows opening-up to it. Part of the building of it was a low-impact, eco-friendly use of material recovered from the site; part the opposite, high-impact and hairy landings of concrete, for the foundations, from a helicopter. Construction was part-joinery, part-forestry and part-mountain rescue, with a local contractor who nicely combined all three, and an unusual set of Risk Assessments.

Below is an interior shot of the structure, a trompe l'oeil library by artist Adam Dant in the style of the Scottish Enlightenment: visitors can write their own titles onto the spines of the books.

More photos here
Via dezeen
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The rise of the treehouse office

A nice piece by Tim Walker in The Independent  (disclaimer: they pay most of my mortgage) describes treehouses as the latest US property boom. "More and more treehouses are being built in the United States," says Tim, "not only for children but also as home offices, guest houses and tree-house resorts. Here's a snippet:

Over in Oregon, Michael Garnier, 66, the owner of the Out'n'About Treehouse Treesort, estimates that demand for parts from his mail-order treehouse supply business has doubled since 2013. "I've been selling parts for years but in the past year it's really exploded," he says.

Well worth a read (it's quite short). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Shed Box of Delights: Treehouse on a crane

The excellent Sawday's Canopy & Stars accommodation specialist which features many shedlike places to stay is organising something very special on Bristol's harbourside, what they claim is 'the world's first treehouse on a crane'.

Canopy & Stars at Crane 29 will be a treehouse, available for bookings, suspended in the air or as C&S put it: "We’re taking all the goodness of the outdoors and putting it into a cosy cocoon of calm in the heart of the city to create a surprising, sensory experience and a true Natural High." Normally, its accommodation options are all in rural locations, so this will be its first urban showpiece.

The carbon neutral building is being put together in collaboration with B&Q and will only be open for bookings for four months, all profits from the enterprise going to Friends of the Earth. To book your berth, click here.
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Treehouseworking

An interesting piece in the Seattle Post Intelligencer by Cecelia Goodnow about new treehouse designs and technology. Treehouseworker artist Lolly Shera says of her own treehouse which has full electrics, insulation and alder panelling: "This is a deeply creative place. I don't have any distractions. There are no 'voices' in here. There's no pull to do the laundry. When it's blowing hard this structure moves, and it feels like a boat that's moored. It groans and creaks. It's like being in a live animal. There's a soul in it that, if you're open to, you can feel."" Goodnow says that treehouses are now being used increasingly as 'escape pods' for babyboomers. She writes:

"Though treehouses have been around for thousands of years, the past decade especially has brought about a high-flying revival, thanks to innovative designs, new technology and a seemingly endless supply of clients with the money to feed their dreams."

Well worth a browse with some good links to treehouse sites at the end of the article. Thanks to Bill Kratz for alerting me to this one.

Microsoft treehouse garden office

Microsoft obviously have a soft spot for working in treehouses. We reported back in 2007 about an arbolic shedworking experiment they carried out and they have now gone for a far more adventurous version on their Redmond campus.

The company says that the three "new outdoor meeting spaces help Microsoft evolve the modern workspace and help employees connect to the environment and one another". Instead of a soulless grey building, entry to the main collaboration room is by a stroll up a planked switchback ramp into a Pacific Northwest Douglas fir which contains the treehouse built by Pete Nelson of the television show Treehouse Masters. "Welcome," as they say "to a new kind of workspace that’s helping employees benefit from what science shows is the powerful impact of nature on creativity, focus, and happiness."

It's 12 ft off the ground and features charred-wood walls, a high ceiling with round skylight, with box benches around the reclaimed-wood walls, and is clad with cinnamon-colored shingles. Entrance is via a hand-carved arched double door which opens electronically. The almost mustardy fragrance of rough-hewn cedar is instantaneous. “The first thing when you walk into the space is that everyone is really quiet. You stop talking and are just present,” says Boulter. “It’s fascinating. People absorb the environment, and it changes the perception of their work and how they can do it.”

Lots more photos and explanations about the environmental advantages of working this way at Microsoft's own blog site.

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Kent Portman

We're very sad to learn via Facebook that Kent Portman has died. Kent was one of the finest and most generous treehouse shedworkers, running his Treehouse Massage business from the branches of a lovely Texan pecan tree in addition to his many other jobs. The treehouse was featured in the Shedworking book for which Kent provided several CDs crammed full of photos and design drawings.

Major treehouse development on Isle of Wight

From the folk who brought you The Quiet Treehouse and JK Rowling's treehouses, comes 'Nesting'. Blue Forest are now working on a vast proposal for The Isle of Wight's Robin Hill Country Park, producing the designs for the scheme which includes 13 natural treehouses (not to mention a dozen timber lodges). The design is based on the curvy Weaver bird’s nest and each treehouse will be clad in sustainably sourced Cedar shingles.

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