Baumhaus Office is a remarkable build from Munich-based Opposite Office which really puts the garden in garden office. It's essentially a titchy one-square-meter cabin halfway up a tree on the campus of Bauhaus-Universität Weimar which optimistically is designed for up to two or three architects ("the treehouse was calculated with safety factors generous enough to satisfy both physics and bureaucracy" say the designers). Features include a skylight which has a marvellous view into the canopy above. Lots more photos at the link above.
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Treehouse specialists Blue Forest will transform the grounds of St Martin-in-the-Fields, overlooking Trafalgar Square, into 'Lost Oasis' an immersive urban garden of timber, greenery, food, drink, sport and live entertainment.
Designed and built by Blue Forest in partnership with Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan, Lost Oasis (artist's render pictured above) will features a series of carefully crafted timber structures and treehouses alongside equally appealing planting. It will offer rotating chef residencies from the likes of Nathan Outlaw, major sporting screenings including the football World Cup, Wimbledon and the Formula 1 British Grand Prix, as well as live music and comedy festival.
“The timber structures will feel as though they have grown out of the landscape, wrapped in living planting and built to tread lightly on their surroundings, bringing a true sense of the wild into the heart of London," said Andy Payne, Blue Forest founder.
It will run June 10 to August 30 and Shedworking is planning to report back from its press opening evening next Tuesday.
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This week's Finery is actually for sale. It's the treehouse in the grounds of the Old Rectory in Kilvington near Nottingham. On the market with Strutt & Parker for £1.6m which also gets you 6 acres of land, a five-bedroom home, and other utbuildings include a garden room with kitchen, garaging and a tool shed, plus a 3 acre paddock with stabling.
An idyllic treehouse writer's retreat by Richmond Bell Architects with a a frameless window which has an extremely distracting view and a total floor area of 18m2 . Sustainable larch from Dorset is used inside and out with a cedar
shingle roof, and reclaimed chapel floorboards were used for the
bookcase wall. There's a hidden door behind the bookcase leading on to a
wraparound raised walkway.
This week's finery focuses on a detail from David Hockney's work 'Autour de la maison, été' (2019) which is coming up for auction at the end of this month at Christie's London.
The full thing is a monumental 12m long printed on a single sheet of paper, and shows Hockney's home and garden in Normandy at the height of summer, but the key elements are obviously the shelike buildings. Hockney incorporates medieval barns and contemporary treehouse in a work, as Christie's puts it: "recalling the narrative structure of the historic Bayeux Tapestry".
The estimate is £200,000-300,000 but it will probably go for more.
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.
Let's head into the weekend with something cosy and comfortable in the form of this rather pleasant windowseat arrangement from treehouse specialists Blue Forest.
We've hopped into our time machine for this week's Finery. Pictured above is the ground-based section of leading treehouse specialist Blue Forest's display at the Chelsea Flower Show last year, what it describes as a "cosy hillside hollow".
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.
There are garden offices and then there are garden offices. This spectacular example from Seattle-based Olson Kundig (click for more excellent interior photos) is called The Brain and is described as a "cinematic laboratory" for a film-maker. It's built from concrete and features a steel
mezzanine. Here's how the architects describe it:
"The double-height single room of the main space is inserted with a
loft constructed entirely of 1/2-inch steel plates that are welded and
folded in an “origami” fashion in order to produce the rigidity and
strength need to become structurally self-sufficient. A set of stairs to
the loft is hidden behind a darkroom and storage space is tucked
beneath the steel loft, while a fireman’s pole provides an easier and
more flamboyant means of egress down."
They add that it is "as much a treehouse, fort, and playroom as it is a
serious work space".
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
Two of the finest shedworkingesque structures at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show - both familiar names to regular readers of Shedworking - are not in the main show gardens but in the exhibitor area. Above is Blue Forest's bespoke treehouse on Main Avenue, the first
accommodation treehouse it has exhibited at the show (afterwards it's going straight to the grounds of Fairmont Windsor Park,
where it will form part of their luxurious accommodation
offering). Features include an outdoor bath and a rather nice swing seat
hanging below the deck.
Plankbridge's shepherd's hut - we'll be bringing more images later this week as it's one of the exhibitors which always attracts a lot of attention - is also looking extremely good.
We particularly like the detailing which includes a mouse run into a hollow log, and this mossy bird's nest in an old kettle in a rewilding patch, below.
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Shed design klaxon! The Royal Botanic Gardens and
the Museum of Architecture have teamed up for a new project, Treehouses at Kew. The final results, on show to the public from April 2023, will include seven treehouses and the two organisations are looking for designers to come up with something special, ideally that celebrates play, nature’s architecture andbiomimicry, and showcases pioneering sustainable materials and innovative design. Garden offices are not specified, but they would certainly fit these categories. The budget is a generous £139,000 per treehouse, plus some additional help with materials and engineering. Here's some more detail (full information at the link above):
The exhibition will communicate the value of good design and the role
architects can play in addressing some of the most pressing problems we
face today – how can we use materials sustainably, how can we respond to
the climate crisis and how can we build for the needs of people and the
planet.
Each treehouse design should be accessible to all our
visitors. Designs should champion Kew’s
beautiful and important trees, and be inspired and informed by Kew’s
vital scientific research into plants and fungi. With an informal,
playful approach we will allow our narratives to be told in an
understandable yet compelling way.
Workplace strategist, environmental psychologist, and longstanding friend of Shedworking Nigel Oseland has a new book out, Beyond the Workplace Zoo. While it concentrates on traditional offices, what's wrong with them (essentially, too much like old zoos and too much thoughtless open planning), and how to fix them (make better use of space), it does touch on elements such as third place working which we follow with interest on this site as well as a mention of garden offices (Nigel works in one himself).
He also looks at issues which are of interest to shedworkers in terms of humanising the workplace, focusing on the psychology of work and practical considerations such as thermal comfort, acoustics, lighting, etc, with particular emphasis on biophilia,the belief that humans work and
live better when they are properly connected to nature e.g. putting plants in workplaces, providing views of nature from desks, etc. Even big boys such as
Amazon are waking up to the benefits of this – their ‘Spheres’ headquarters in
Seattle is essentially an enormous conservatory with more than 40,000 plants
and 300 plant species as well as treehouse meeting rooms and major water
features. Nigel's solution is what he describes as a 'landscaped office' which has obvious overlaps with garden offices.
It's a very interesting read, extremely well researched and authoritative, but not packed with academicspeak and so is properly accessible to the general reader. And at 188 pages, including photos and other illustrations, it's not a wristbreaker. Strongly recommended, whether you work in a garden office or not. Below, Nigel talks about it all in an interview on a Journal of Biophilic Design podcast.
Blue Forest is a treehouse specialist but they have now launched a new ground-based range of buildings targeting the rapidly growing garden office market. Its Down to Earth Collection includes models based on their treehouse designs and are all available in bespoke formats. Pictured above is The Cabin, with an interior of 18m2 and high beamed ceilings, clad
in cedar with a cedar shingle roof. Below is The Oast. This comes in at 11m2, with cedar shingle
turrets and a reading nook.
A third design, The Chalet, is a kind of combination of the two, and below is their largest offering, The Studio, coming in at a whopping 22m2.
Subtitled 'Your Ideal Home in the Middle of Nowhere', this book by Foster Huntington (author of the popular Van Life) is more aimed at the tiny house market but does include plenty of huts and shedlike buildings. It's heavy on images as you'd expect from a photographer and film-maker but still very pleasant. Here's the publisher's blurb:
After
spending three years on the road living in a camper van, Foster
Huntington continued his unconventional lifestyle by building a
two-story treehouse. Foster, like many others, are finding freedom,
tranquility, and adventure in living off the grid in unconventional
homes.
Perfect for fans of Van Life and Cabin Porn and those who long for a quieter life, Off Grid Life
showcases unique dwellings from all around the world. Organized into
sections like tree houses, tiny houses, shipping containers, yurts,
boathouses, barns, vans, and more, the 250 aspirational photographs
feature enviable settings like stunning beaches, dramatic mountains and
picturesque forests. Also included are images of fully designed
interiors with kitchens and sleeping quarters as well as interviews with
solo dwellers, couples, and families who are living this new American
dream.
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Still on the drawing board pending planning approval, but we're looking forward hopefully to seeing this treehouse design from Rotunda in real life. Here's what they say about it:
"Over the years, we’ve designed and built all sorts of treehouse style structures but this one really is special. Curve fanatics out there will most definitely appreciate the fibbonaci spiral integration. This configuration hugs the natural curves of the tree
it’s supported on and wraps around as a natural spiral and curves like a
nest would. In our opinion, all houses should be round, but none more
so than the humble treehouse."
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