Who doesn’t love a tree house? It’s the epitome of a club house for any kid while growing up. I remember trying to build one in the lot behind our house with old boards and parquet tiles but never achieved a floor above the ground. I was limited to creating walls around three tree trunks and a poorly fashioned entry way, but by golly at 10 years old I had a tree house.
Even today I wouldn’t mind having one in my backyard as a sort of refuge or hangout, spending time outside in the relaxing sway of the trees. And apparently I’m not the only one. It seems that there is a trend going on with architects such as Blueforest who specialize in designing and managing tree house projects, which are meeting the needs of these tree house lovers. Web Urbanist has an interesting article detailing some of the more unique tree houses from around the world.
Another movement, in that same vein, is the interest in converting old buildings and other enclosures into habitats, offices, and…water parks? Again, Web Urbanist brings us more examples of how people are capitalizing on architectural adaptive reuse. Now I’ve seen churches that have been turned into houses before, mostly in Europe since they are so prolific there, but I’ve never quite seen an airplane house. My favorite part about the converted airplane is the Jacuzzi tub in the cockpit which is suspended over a lake.
The most ingenious conversion in this article has to be the old zeppelin hangar outside of Berlin. Inside this mammoth steel building is the world’s largest indoor tropical pool complex and water park, Tropical Islands. I really like this idea of taking unused, but still in good condition buildings and turning them into something entirely different. It saves money, materials, and even a part of the history of the area. And the residents of the Berlin area have a warm, tropical destination in an accessible location open 24 hours a day, year round.
1 response so far ↓
showyourhouse // June 23, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I love tree houses. I have been using them since my childhood.