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The tree house

I was a director of the architectural firm, Pacific Environments New Zealand Ltd. We were commissioned by Yellow Pages to design a tree house. I was the lead architect from the initial briefing stage through concept to completion. I acknowledge the support of my colleagues in the firm, the consultants (Holmes Group), the contractors (McIntosh Industries and NZ Strong) and the film crew (Colenso BBDO): http://www.colensobbdo.co.nz/#yellow-treehouse.

Treehouse won all the major architectural and design awards(1) in NZ and was a finalist in the 2009 World Architecture Festival awards(2). Published in 200+ journals and books(3), 100+ YouTube videos, with over 6 million ‘hits’ on our website and catalogued by Google as an “Architectural Wonder”.

The research falls into 3 areas: creative design, structural analysis and constructional complexities. The creative research was based on analysing built forms that resonate with the primal instincts of the security that our ancestors would have had from living in trees: an inhabitable cocoon or chrysalis; a childhood dream.

Taking the concept to construction required innovative research to achieve code compliance. A new (“Ping”) test was devised by the structural engineers (4) to prove that a living tree can comply with NZ earthquake design criteria. Working with an arborist, structural fixings were designed that provided support without harming the tree (strangely, the kindest way to fix to a tree is to drill straight through it!). The building is made from trees of the forest and research involved selection of trees to be felled and physical constraints of large laminated timber components. The fins were the largest that could be made in NZ in one continuous piece (5). Avoiding unbalanced loads during construction, the tree was supported by a web of guy ropes running deep into the forest.

1. http://www.pacificenvironments.co.nz/newsarticles/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=Middle/focusModuleID=3698/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl

2. http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/shortlist_detail.cfm?projectCategoryId=26&eventYear=2009.

3. http://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/project.cfm?id=1203

4. http://www.holmesgroup.com/yellow-tree-house/

5. http://www.mcintosh.co.nz/CASE+STUDIES/Yellow+Treehouse+Restaurant.html