Yellow Treehouse from New Zealand

Yellow Treehouse from New Zealand

Interesting marketing / sponsorship / restaurant / architectural collaboration going on in New Zealand.

This treehouse was a commissioned work by Yellow Pages as the set for a 'reality' TV advertisement.

Pacific Environments Architects was called upon to design an in-the-trees functioning restaurant in a Redwood tree (over 40m high and 1.7m diameter at the base) on a site north of Auckland.

According to the Pacific Environments Architects website the Architectural Concept was to builds an open, light, organic form in the trees:

The tree-house concept is reminiscent of childhood dreams and playtime, fairy stories of enchantment and imagination . It's inspired through many forms found in nature -the chrysalis/cocoon protecting the emerging butterfly/moth, perhaps an onion/garlic clove form hung out to dry. It is also seen as a lantern, a beacon at night that simply glows yet during the day it might be a semi camouflaged growth, or a tree fort that provides an outlook and that offers refuge.The plan form also has loose similarities to a sea shell with the open ends spiralling to the centre.

Details of the construction:

It sits almost 10m wide and over 12m high, with the split-level floor sitting 10m off the ground. Timber trusses form the main structure. The curved fins are glue-laminated pine, plantation poplar has been used for the slats and redwood milled from the site used in the walkway balustrading. Openings are formed for windows by leaving spaces between the slats/fins that keeps the overall form yet affords a variety of openness for the views and light and closes down toward the rear. To loosen the regularity of the elements, steel is wrapped arbitrarily around the pod. Tying this up at the top and base has a sense of greater connection with the tree.

It is designed to be weather resistant using acrylic sheeting fixed to the roof under the fins with vertical roll-down cafe-style blinds within. Lighting is an important architectural component enhancing and changing the mood, with discreet lighting within the walkway and up-lighting within the tree house.

The construction was completed in December 2008 and has since opened to the public as a restaurant. The combination marketing approach and tree house design has apparently paid off -- reservations are booked up and another restaurant company is set to take over to operate the yellow treehouse.

What a great collaboration of talent. For more images and media about this project visit the Yellowpages website: Yellow Treehouse Cafe.