Harads, Sweden - This is the time of year when many dream of avoiding the tyranny of holiday obligations and escaping to a remote fantasy location. Some pine for deserted beaches. But one look at photos of the magical Treehotel in Harads in the north of Sweden and I know where I am going (in my head).
The treehouse hotel has become its own genre in recent years, but the Treehotel is an unusually sophisticated expression of a child’s fantasy.
Each of its half dozen self-contained “treerooms” is a unique structure.
The sleek Mirrorcube from Tham & Videgård architects reflects the surrounding forest, lending it a sophisticated camouflage in the right light. Built on an aluminum frame, its glass walls have been clad in an infrared film the colour of which is invisible to humans, but highly visible to birds to prevent them flying into the glass.
The Mirrorcube’s mirror opposite is the Bird’s Nest by Inredningsgruppen and Bertil Harström, a structure that looks like a giant version of its namesake. Guests enter via a retractable stairway. Another structure, a red treehouse incongruously named the Blue Cone and designed by Sandell Sandberg, is made from laminated birchwood and is wheelchair accessible via an entry ramp.
A treehouse shaped like a UFO also by Inredningsgruppen and Bertil Harström sleeps four.
The Treehotel is the brainchild of Britta, a former nurse, and Kent, a teacher turned fly fishing travel guide, who run a conventional hostel nearby.
Opened in 2010, the Treehotel now has a half dozen treerooms and a free-standing sauna structure, with plans for more.
Britta and Kent have given free reign to leading Scandinavian architects to design the eco-conscious, low-impact, free-standing treerooms, which are suspended 4m to 6m off the ground, surrounded by forest and views of the nearby Lule River.
The treerooms were built on and around live trees; no trees on site were chopped down in the creation of the structures.
For many more photos and information, go to www.treehotel.se. – Slate