Inhabitat Staging » PREFAB TREE HOUSE

October 31, 2005

PREFAB TREE HOUSE

by Sarah Rich

The pairing of prefab and tree houses is a brilliant combination. Sybarite obviously understands this. Their new conceptual project in the rural UK approaches modular design with the goal of creating a flexible, easy-to-build dwelling in the country, though it’s more extraterrestrial than rustic.

The Tree House has been created from the interior out, with the intention of giving optimal perspective across the treetops. “The “belly” of the tree house accommodates undulating kinetic baffles that utilise wind power to generate electricity.” The model uses many recycled components and can be built in two weeks. Given the name of the company, we must assume that the interior doesn’t skimp where aesthetics are concerned, though we can only speculate until live models are built.

+ www.sybarite-uk.com
via: mooch

7 Responses to “PREFAB TREE HOUSE”

Aleximus Says:

November 1st, 2005 at 11:00 am

Great design in principle, but to put a house at that height among trees would mean exposing both the house and its inhabitants to the hottest temperatures in a bushfire (something that we consider pretty important here in Australia).

sassy_red_head Says:

November 1st, 2005 at 5:50 pm

You would think that if there were a fire, you would leave your home, regardless if it were on the ground or up in the trees.

Personally, I would just find it annoying to haul stuff up there like furniture or a large bunch of groceries, but I guess it’s really no different than an apartment building as far as that goes.

Don Elliot Says:

November 3rd, 2005 at 2:59 am

So, how DO you get up there? No elevator, entry mechanism is visible in the rendering. Also, it looks like a great place to be when you want the view on a nice sunny day, but (compared to the trees around it, for instance) how does it perform in varying weather extremes? Seasick pills in a Nor’easter?

This really looks more like an observation tower than a habitat or living space. And it does also look a bit like something from a 60’s sci-fi movie…

Seriously, the concept is something I have thought about since I was a child in, well, my treehouse. This seems to take things a bit too far, though. There are the lingering questions as to how you get to and from the place, what is going on under the canopy to support interaction with the world outside the treetops, and what the neighbors are like. The uniqueness of the design, when replicated many times in many places could become just ticky-tacky in the treetops.

In summary. A nice icea, nice sculptural shape, nice place to hang for a view, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

Paul Says:

November 7th, 2005 at 2:57 pm

Don’t the trees beneath the structure eventually grow?

Heather Says:

January 24th, 2006 at 10:07 am

Good way of solving th eproblems of global warming! No need to cut down trees in order to expand or contruct. But Not sure about space age design do we really need to be living in pods just because its thought of as future design!!!

Inhabitat » Blog Archive » GROW YOUR OWN TREEHOUSE Says:

June 12th, 2006 at 5:54 pm

[…] There are houses built in trees and then there are treehouses. Last year, we had one of our first encounters with a home literally made from trees, using an ancient technique called pleaching - the art of weaving (and sometimes grafting) trees together to form structures. The Fab Tree Hab was one of the design entries for the Index: awards, emerging from the genius of a crew including MIT architect Mitchell Joachim and our friend, Javier Arbona of Archinect. The project description emphasized consideration of whole systems (and ecosystems) in creating a truly sustainable built environment, rather than a piecemeal approach that could yield uncertain longterm outcomes. […]