Encircling a 100-year-old oak – the tallest tree on the
Château de
Raray hotel property in France – the ORIGIN tree house by
Atelier
Lavit is envisioned as a tailored wooden ‘dress’ to make
the oak stand out even more. This modern timber pod functions
as a tree house hotel room, providing surprisingly spacious and
comfortable lodgings accessed from a hanging bridge. Each facet
of the geometric structure intersects the other, creating
dynamic overlapping lines.
The effect is that of an abstracted bird’s nest – which is
exactly what the architects were going for. “The design of the
cabin, coupled with the construction techniques, led to a
rationalization of the assembly logic of the branches collected
by the birds to create their impregnable shelters,” they
explain.
Measuring just under 250 square feet, the room includes a small
sheltered patio from which the interiors are entered. Keep
climbing the ladder set beside the tree’s trunk instead, and
you’ll find yourself on the tree house’s rooftop terrace.
Inside, the tree house is lined in pale wood with matching
custom furniture. Guests enjoy a generously-sized bed looking
out a large operable window to the branches beyond the glass.
The room also includes a sitting area and a private bathroom.
Atelier Lavit recently took this same aesthetic in a different
direction with a floating eco-hotel on a lake near Avignon,
France. The series of buoyant suites on Lac de la Lionne are
enveloped in criss-crossing timber slats, creating a
semi-private outdoor area complete with a hot tub, while the
beds inside are placed directly beneath skylights for a view of
the stars.
