Nidum Cabina is a striking conceptual retreat by Veliz Arquitecto that blends modern architecture with the quiet beauty of the natural world.
With its smooth, rounded form, reminiscent of a forest nest, it offers a calm and sculptural space designed to exist in harmony with its surroundings.
Perched gently above the ground on stilts, the cabin treads lightly on the earth. Its organic shape and use of natural materials allow it to blend seamlessly into the landscape, feeling more grown than built.
The stilt-like structure is reminiscent of traditional scaffolding, and lends the entire build a highly unique ‘suspended’ feel.
Inside, the space is open and minimal, with large cutouts that frame the forest and let in plenty of light and air. The design encourages stillness, reflection, and a stronger connection to the natural world.
Rather than standing out, Nidum Cabina quietly complements its environment, showing how thoughtful architecture can support sustainability, beauty, and peace.
Who doesn’t love a good treehouse? Especially one that takes on a designer feel, with a unique, fin-like structure, and an attached suspension bridge?
Part of the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden in Southwest Arkansas, the design is created by Modus Studio, and has a certain futuristic feel to it. The 5-sided main structure creates a focal point, and then progresses into a smaller tunnel-like pathway, with unique fins that bring a sense of visual cohesion.
Using locally sourced Southern yellow pine, the structure is a magical discovery for kids exploring this mature Ouachita Forest outside of Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Photos via Timothy Hursley and Modus Studio, used with permission.
Brazilian architecture firm Studio MEMM completed this elegant treehouse in Minas Gerais, in Southeast Brazil. Elevated between endemic Pinheiro-bravo trees, the linear treehouse is located near an existing pond, and features a long elevated walkway, and geometric forms that fit into the wooded setting.
We love the darkly stained wood and the well-placed landscape lighting, which gives a sense of drama to the site.
We made a treehouse as a kid, and it was pretty fancy, by a 13 year-old’s standards. It had a trap door, and some window screen nailed up, as well as a very rickety plank to walk between trees. Designer and builder Guy Mallinson is trying to make us look bad, with his team’s amazing Woodsman Treehouse.
Costing well over $185,000 to build, the treehouse is a fully livable home, and beautiful, at that. Mallinson and his team went to great lengths not to harm the trees, but build around them, and incorporate their growth into the design of the treehouse. Some of the features included are a wood-fired pizza oven, a rooftop sauna and hot tub, an outdoor tree shower, and a large slide to bring you down quickly. It’s now part of an entire family of amazing treehouses called Mallinson’s Woodland Retreat, located in the UK, and all available for rental.
Below are some of the refined details of the Woodsman Treehouse, which would make a most memorable weekend stay, indeed.
Meet Bert, a playful, tree trunk-shaped modular tiny home from Austrian firm Precht. The warm and inviting shapes fit together in nearly endless configurations, and look great nestled amongst a real forest. We appreciate the wooden shingle cladding, which lends a fun and welcoming appearance. The designers purposely created Bert to be a breath of fresh air, especially in an architectural community that is very self-serious and often times stale.
Inside, the modular forms have plenty of space for living, and their large circular windows create a lovely porthole effect. We envision a small village of these in a forest, feeling both like a home for hobbits, and something you might see on the forest moon of Endor.
“We know that buildings like Bert are not the path forward on a big scale, but I think as an industry, we need to dare more, try more and experiment more towards a more diverse future of our cities.”
– Precht
“Designing Bert, we tried to remember back to our childhood when we were climbing trees and building shelters with branches. We experienced nature in a 3 dimensional way and saw our surrounding as a playground. We tried to look at Bert from this perspective. How would children imagine a treehouse?”
Impressive and fancy treehouses have been built all over the world, as ways to find a mini escape to nature, and sometimes just to have architects flex their muscles. We’ve written about a numberof them, but this ‘Woodnest‘ cabin outside of the Norwegian city of Odda is definitely one of the most elegant and refined that we’ve seen.
Designed by Helen & Hard Architects, the small, elevated cabin literally hugs a tree, which helps make up the support system itself.
The cabin’s wooden shingles are intricately applied and almost resemble an owl’s feathers, which further help the cabin blend into its natural setting.
A short walk across the elevated bridge take you into the cabin, which has flowing organic lines, and a clean and refined interior. Huge expansive windows, combined with the lifted position give the Woodnest an extraordinary view of the Hardangerfjord (Finland’s fourth largest fjord) below.
We’re impressed by the brilliant use of space, and also the modest footprint of the treehouse, which nevertheless provides an incredible experience for visitors. Via Uncrate:
” Stemming from the client’s wish to create a unique spatial experience that connects to both the ordinary and extraordinary sensation of climbing and exploring trees, our aim was to create a space that truly embodies what it means to dwell in nature. “
– Helen and Hard Architects
” Woodnest is a project that quietly sits in an extraordinary situation.The architecture aims to allow people to pause and appreciate the smaller details of the natural environments we inhabit;the grain of timber, the daily rhythm of the forest and the sensation of dwelling in nature. “
Amongst the eucalyptus trees of the beautiful South African city is the Cape Town Tree House. The stunning home is made of four steel “trunks” that form the structure, with another central core within. The vertically oriented house provides great views of Table Mountain, Cape Town’s famous peak. Designed by Malan Vorster, the house is made of steel and western red cedar, and has a wonderfully airy interior flow. Steel elements that makeup the trunks create a tree-like experience inside the home, and the 360 degree views of trees and nature give this home a very special experience. If you happen to know the owners, please let us know. We’d like to spend a weekend there. For those of you wanting more options for treehouse rentals, check out The 6 Coolest Airbnb Treehouses You Can Rent, posted by AllTheRooms.com. Via Uncrate:
Some structures sit on the land. Willow Treehouse looks like it’s about to leave it. The cabin tilts up from a single raked steel column on thirty-four acres of private Catskill Mountains forest, its cedar-clad body angled like a shard of light caught mid-fall. Fifteen minutes from Woodstock, New York, it’s less a place to sleep than a small, geometric argument for treehouse architecture — the kind of cantilevered, gravity-testing structure you’d expect to find in a survey of the world’s most extraordinary buildings, except you can actually book a night in it.
Willow Treehouse rises on a single raked steel column above 34 acres of Catskill forest.
Perched on a Single Steel Leg
The form does the work here. A single angled leg lifts the entire structure above a quiet pond and a stand of pines, leaving the forest floor almost untouched beneath it. Cedar shake siding wraps the exterior in warm, weathered tones that shift with the light — pale gold at midday, deep bronze at dusk, and, after dark, a lantern glowing amber against the black tree line. A wraparound deck and an angled skylight above the wood-burning stove let the cabin breathe in every direction, while a slim exterior staircase drops down to a second deck at ground level, built for firelight and long dinners under the trees.
The cabin and its pond are the heart of the property, just fifteen minutes from Woodstock, New York.Seen from above, the treehouse all but disappears into the tree line.
Inside the Canopy
Step inside and the geometry softens. Knotty pine paneling lines the walls, ceiling, and floor, glowing amber even on overcast days, while glass walls on two and sometimes three sides keep the forest constantly in view. The living area centers on a black wood-burning stove and a low sectional sofa — the kind of room built for reading with the whole Catskills as a backdrop. A poured-concrete kitchen island anchors the far end, doubling as a bar with a run of low wood stools, and a wood ladder staircase climbs to a sleeping loft tucked beneath the angled roofline, where a plush bed and a sheepskin rug sit behind glass that opens straight onto the treetops. Down a half-flight from the main room, a second, lower lounge — floor cushions, kilim pillows, one big picture window — makes for a quiet spot to disappear into a book.
A wood-burning stove and glass walls make the living room feel like an extension of the forest outside.A wood ladder staircase links the open living area to the sleeping loft above.The kitchen’s poured-concrete island opens to decks on either side, framed by glass sliders.Tucked beneath the angled roofline, the loft holds little more than a bed, a sheepskin, and a view.A second, lower lounge trades the stove for floor cushions and one enormous window.
Staying at Willow Treehouse
Willow Treehouse is available to book directly on Airbnb, from around $325 per night — modest, considering the setting. The property leans hard into its wooded privacy: a wood-burning hot tub outside, a fire pit and dining table on the lower deck, and nothing but pond, pine, and mountain for company. It’s the kind of place that rewards a slow weekend — coffee on the deck at sunrise, a swim in the pond, dinner cooked over the outdoor stove as the cabin lights up gold at dusk. (Photos via Uncrate.)
The cabin’s single leg meets the ground beside a dining deck built for firelit dinners.A guest settles in on the lower deck, in the shadow of the cantilevered structure above.By dusk, the treehouse glows like a lantern set into the tree line.Framed between two trunks, Willow Treehouse disappears into — and out of — the Catskills dark.
Willow Treehouse is one stop in a series we keep returning to — buildings that treat the tree line as a design partner rather than an obstacle to build around. If this one has you dreaming of a life spent higher off the ground, don’t stop here: we’ve also toured a glass-wrapped luxury treehouse built for uninterrupted canopy views, and a cluster of sustainable treehouses tucked into the Italian Dolomites. Consider it the start of your own field guide to treehouse architecture.
