Stately trees, a beautiful landscape, a good selection of leisure activities, and, if possible, a pre-existing infrastructure – a site that offers all these things is a good candidate for hosting a treehouse hotel.
Add a realistic chance of obtaining a building permit, and the auspices for success are very good indeed. A family from Bad Zwischenahn is the owner of a property that offers all these advantages. In the past, the property was a working farm, but after the end of the farming activities, the family started considering new options for utilising the adjacent forests and the unused parts of the agricultural buildings.
The client’s ideas initially centred around a complex of four treehouses. In a subsequent phase of the development, the old farm buildings would be restored and converted into activity areas. The third phase would involve the construction of additional treehouses to accommodate extra guests.
Baumraum developed a design that represented an unusual contrast to the architecture common in this region. The treehouse cabins, each of which is almost 13 metres long, were offset against one another and placed in the forest. While the weight of the cabins rests on 14 irregularly arranged steel columns, each of the treehouse terraces is suspended from a tree. A straight steel stairway provides access to the treehouses, which stand at a height of 3.5 metres above the ground.
The predominant material used for the façades and the interiors is untreated larch wood. Each treehouse cabin offers a bedroom for two people, a fully appointed bathroom, and a residential area with a kitchen unit and two additional beds. The white surfaces of the built-in furniture contrasts with the warm tones of the oiled wood in the interior of the treehouse cabin.
Project Details:
Location: Bad Zwischenahn, Germany
Type: Hotel
Architects: baumraum
Opening: 2011
Photos: Andreas Wenning
Project Data:
Trees: oak
Height situated in the height of 3.5 m,
Bearing structure: The terrace is suspended from the oak tree by means of stainless steel cables and textile straps; the treehouse’s load rests on 14 asymmetrically arranged and leaning steel supports.
Interior area. 35,6 qm
Terrace area 124 qm
Façade construction from inside to outside: 20 mm larch boarding, untreated; 100 mm natural Insalation DWD; wind foil; 20 mm air space; 100 mm massive Wood Walls, bias-cut larch battens, horizontal