Swedish Treehouse Fantasy

I have a soft spot for tree houses, having built one with my dad at age 11. To me they represent the ultimate coming together of domesticity and nature; a way to feel sheltered and safe but still in touch with the natural world.
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Designers, too, seem to feel the allure of tree houses, often creating incredibly fanciful designs. A hotel in way-northern Sweden, located just 32 miles south of Arctic Circle, is tapping into this magnetism.

The husband-and-wife owners of Treehotel, Britta Jonsson Lindvall and Kent Lindvall, have enlisted six designers to create their fantasy modern treehouses. There's the 13-by-13 foot Mirrorcube, above, a reflective glass cube built around the trunk of a pine.  It blends into the surrounding forest so well that the architects plan to cover it with a transparent ultraviolet film to alert flying birds, so they won't smash into it.

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Here's the interior:

Here's an artist rendering of the 'Bird's Nest,' a cylinder covered in branches, designed by Inrednings Gruppen.

I love the idea of this 12-person "tree sauna":
The first four rooms opened in July; another two are slated to open this fall, including the aptly named UFO, shaped like a flying saucer.

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Tree Hotel in Sweden is known for its array of unique dwellings from their Bird’s Nest to the UFO, all of which are suspended above ground. Husband-and-wife owners Britta Jonsson Lindvall and Kent Lindvall enlisted several different designers to develop their contemporary tree house community, which has garnered international interest. One of the most iconic of their dwellings is the 13' by 13' Mirrorcube made of reflective glass, straddling the trunk of a pine. From the outside, it appears as if there’s nothing there at all, while inside, warm interiors are swathed in light plywood with three windows, a sky light, and balcony hidden behind the mirror facade—which means you can step outside the box without being seen.

Tree Hotel in Sweden is known for its array of unique dwellings from their Bird’s Nest to the UFO, all of which are suspended above ground. Husband-and-wife owners Britta Jonsson Lindvall and Kent Lindvall enlisted several different designers to develop their contemporary tree house community, which has garnered international interest. One of the most iconic of their dwellings is the 13' by 13' Mirrorcube made of reflective glass, straddling the trunk of a pine. From the outside, it appears as if there’s nothing there at all, while inside, warm interiors are swathed in light plywood with three windows, a sky light, and balcony hidden behind the mirror facade—which means you can step outside the box without being seen.

Jaime Gillin
When not writing, editing, or combing design magazines and blogs for inspiration, Jaime Gillin is experimenting with new recipes, traveling as much as possible, and tackling minor home-improvement projects that inevitably turn...

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