'Parasitic' Treehouse Sprouts From Apartment Building

'Parasitic' Treehouse Sprouts From Apartment Building

WMMNA has a link to an art show in Amsterdam that showcases a unique treehouse art piece.

From the WMMNA site: "Over the Top is about "parasitic" structures added on to existing buildings. My fav is Under Heaven. For an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Leonard van Munster placed a 9 meter high tree on top of the building. Nested in the tree was a little dwelling made of fruit crates and other found materials."

The Dutch have a great history of people squatting in abandoned warehouses and industrial buildings. I've heard stories from people (such as my friend Mr. Hoogkamer) who have lived in such squat communities first hand. These are typically alternative / constructive / artist types who delight in transforming obsolete space into funky and comfortable living places of their own. The builders usually do it with a minimum of cost by using recycled or reclaimed materials and a lot of simple ingenuity. And the government bodies have made progress in the establishment of recognized rights for such shelters, to allow people to avoid institutionalized 'public housing projects,' and to indulge those who opt for a self-sufficient, self-empowering, self-made housing option.

Van Munster's piece takes the theme to a new height.

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German Watertower Conversion to Treehouse lofts

German Watertower Conversion to Treehouse lofts

From the Inhabitat article:

In Essen, Germany, Architects from the Madako group have transformed an historic water tower into an imaginative space for living and working that showcases a fusion of old and new with lasting environmental considerations.

In its initial form, the Umbau Wasserturm (converted water tower) in Essen-Bredeney stood untouched under Germany's 'Denkmalschutz' (historic building / monument protection) and 'Landschaftschutzgebiet' (culturally significant landscape protection area). These two designations prevented demolition and maintained the water tower as part of the heritage landscape. The potential of the structure remained untapped until 2002. Then, with little alteration to the exterior, the water tower was transformed into an eight-story, multi-use building. The ground level space serves as an office and the lofty top level unit offers conference space with views of the surrounding natural landscape.

Three two-story apartments welcome the sun with open, flowing floor plans and high ceilings. Natural daylighting, thermal mass and convective cooling are inherent building technologies that translate to the structure's new functions.

The embodied energy in existing materials has been diluted through an extension of the structure's viability. Through reuse and adaptation the cost of demolition, trucking and land filling debris, the manufacturing, transport and installation of new structural materials has been eliminated. The result is a quiet lesson in "stealth green" - reuse brings both ecological and cultural advantages.

Project By:

Madako Architects
Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz
Photos © copyright by krischerfotografie.de

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