Wooden treehouse in Devon

The Dartmoor Treehouse, despite its name, is not what you would expect it to be. It is situated in a tree or, technically, around it but it’s not actually a house. It was a project designed by London-based Jerry Tate Architects who worked with students and the request was to build a temporary structure on a farm as part of this year’s Dartmoor Arts Project.

The inspiration for this project was a weaver bird’s nest. The designers used an oak tree located on a steep hill as their central axis for this project. The tree house has a conic shape with a spheric base and there’s also a walkways that was built to slope gently up to where it was positioned. The shape of the actual tree house, inspired by a weaver bird’s nest, looks quite dramatic and not that well-structured but, despite that, it is actually safe and secure.

The tree house and the walkway were built from timber wood that was milled on site from locally felled spruce, larch and western red cedar. It is a striking structure and it was completed in only five days. It was a collaborative activity and the students, Jerry Tate Architects and carpenter Henry Russell worked together during the entire project. The tree house was not built only to impress. It was actually a request from the owners of a local farm. They wanted a safe play area for their grandchildren and they found this to be a great opportunity for that.