Taringa Treehouse in Brisbane Backyard by Phorm architecture + design.

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There’s so much to say about this 50sqm project, it’s hard to know where to start. The obvious reference is to the long forgotten childhood joy of tree-houses. For who among us doesn’t secretly long for that escape far above the ground and far away from all the grownups, into our own little house away from the world?

“Many aspects of the Treehouse are informed not from local domestic architecture but rather the playful language and sensibilities of children’s cubby houses which traditionally inhabit this terrain. More particularly their ability to collect experiences of place and solicit memories,” said the architects.

This single-dwelling, residential delight, whilst in the trees it may certainly be, would put half of Sydney’s studio apartments to shame.

There’s a subtle and perfectly restrained expression of materials used here. The limited palette and controlled application of materials feels very Scandi in nature. It’s got that lightness of touch with the plywood sheeting and trims of white. “Whilst refined and keenly executed, the treehouse reflects upon the assemblage of eclectic materials and textures of these naïve structures,” commented the architects.

The simplicity of the angular design must also get a mention, a bold hand sketched out this triangular treehouse plan. “The triangular plan is the considered response to the field of immediate adjacencies. The footprint is confined and placement careful to minimise displacement of valued landscape,” noted the architects.

The almost minimal level of adornment in the treehouse, combined with sliding doors, light materials, exposed beams, latticework timber walls with clean white sheeting feels like a nod to traditional Japanese architecture.

But it’s that wedge shape that takes this from being just any old treehouse. That perfectly angular elevation, the one you see as you stand looking back at the treehouse from the main house – it’s that shape, the wedge that looks just like a piece of Toblerone chocolate. A little triangular nugget of goodness just sitting there, tempting you with it’s odd but commanding profile.

It was designed this way, with this lovely wedge to reduce the impact and imposition of the new dwelling on the garden. “The treehouse presents no formal elevation back to the original house. Only the ‘thin edge of the wedge’ is present. The intention was not to fill the backyard but retain the natural aspect and vacancy,” said the architects.

It’s a lovely addition to a garden and an extension to a house, without the normal confines of seamlessly integrating the new project with the existing structure. And even if the children never play in this particular treehouse, it stands to reason that something as beautifully and simply designed as this will become the ultimate mancave (for both sexes!). Which really, when you think about it, is just the grown up version of a treehouse anyway.

[Images courtesy of Phorm architecture + design. Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones.]

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