Swedish Treehouse Hotel Imitates Shapes Both Real and Imagined

October 26, 2011 • 3:00 pm PDT
+ comments
See original
prev next

1 / 6

In the Swedish village of Hrads, population 600, sits a hotel where the aesthetic of the rooms alternates between of-the-earth and unearthly. There's the room called The Bird's Nest, which looks like a mess of twigs floating in the air and camouflaged among the trees' canopy. And then there's the UFO (pictured above), which lets guests pretend they're visitors on an alien aircraft.

But the disparate designs of the Tree Hotel's rooms are tied together by their respect for the nature that surrounds them. The five rooms in operation so far—eventually there will be 24—are suspended four to six meters above the ground in live trees, without harming the arbors. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide remarkable views of the forest and nearby Lule River. The rooms are built from chemical-free wood and are plumbed with combustion toilets that incinerate waste with 1,112-degree heat.

"While we want to have our hotel in the middle of nature, we want to do it on nature's terms," says the Tree Hotel's website. Good work doesn't go unnoticed. In addition to giving shivers to the design blogosphere, the hotel just won Sweden's Grand Tourism Award for 2011. But starting at $609 a night for two people, a visit is probably best reserved for the "before I die" bucket list.

Zak Stone
Assistant Editor

See Gallery

Click through for a tour of the Tree Hotel.

Photos courtesy of Tree Hotel

Posted in: Design

Tags: hotel,; sweden,; the daily good,; treehouse

More GOOD stuff

Sponsored by University of PhoenixRelated posts

News
American vs. Swedish Democracy
View American vs. Swedish Democracy.
by GOOD
Lifestyle
Six DIY Alternatives to Christmas Trees, Real or Fake
This year, deck your halls with a nontraditional, DIY creation.
by Jillian Anthony
Environment
A 'Vertical Greenhouse' Could Make a Swedish City Self-Sufficient
Growing these plants in the city will make food production less costly both for the environment and for consumers.
by Julie Ma
News
Swedish Advice on Dealing With the Media: Lost In Translation?
There's an interesting item on MountainRunner about this briefer given out by the Foreign Ministry, about how the Swedish Foreign Ministry should...
by Siobhan O'Connor
GOOD Blog
Intermission: Swedish Chef Sings "Pöpcørn"
Just for fun: The Muppets's Swedish Chef performs "Pöpcørn." The Muppets have embraced the web video format in brilliant fashion (previous...
by Andrew Price
Design
Recycling, the Sortify Way: Swedish Bins Encourage Smart Trash Disposal
Back in October, we singled out the BigBelly Solar Compactor, an alternative to traditional trash cans that uses solar power to compact trash as...
by Alicia Capetillo
Environment
Swedish City Hits an Impressive Target: No Fossil Fuel for Heat
Kristianstad uses virtually no fossil fuel to heat its buildings and homes. What does it use instead? Potato peels and stale cookies.
by Andrew Price
Culture
The Ghosts of Christmas Trees Past: Seven Sidewalk Disposal Styles
Will Etling takes us on a visual tour of the funniest, saddest, and most inventive methods of Christmas tree disposal on Southland sidewalks.
by Patrick James, Will Etling
Culture
These Attractive Sneakers Become Trees When You're Done with Them
Dutch shoe company OAT Shoes' new sneakers biodegrade and become trees when you throw them out. Say hello to fashion's future.
by Cord Jefferson
GOOD Blog
The Best Wi-Fi Hotels
Hotel Chatter has compiled a list of hotels with the best wireless service. Good to know--whether you're flying on business twice a week or just...
by Patrick James
Issue 008
Hotel Darfur
In [i]Darfur Now[/i], Don Cheadle and activist Adam Sterling show that you can actually do something about Darfur.
by Matt Barone, Livia Corona
GOOD Blog
Intermission: Body Hotel
We did a bunch of papercraft art for the GOOD 100 issue. Then we started seeing it everywhere. David Lüpschen combines papercraft with stop...
by Andrew Price
Environment
An Urban Hotel for Insects
The British real estate company British Land and the City of London recently held a unique architecture competition called Beyond the Hive. The...
by Andrew Price
Culture
In Cornwall, a Hotel for Chickens
David Roberts's Chicken Hotel serves chickens—but not in the way you're thinking.
by Allison Arieff
Lifestyle
Feast Your Eyes: Family Tree of Wine Grapes
And it looks pretty incestuous. What that means for the future of Merlot and biotechnology's role in breeding better vines.
by Peter Smith
Lifestyle
The Apartment-Swapping Alternative to Hotels
With Airbnb, apartment swapping gets user-friendly.
by Jillian Anthony
Lifestyle
Clean the World: A Hotel Soap Recycling Scheme
You know those little bars of soap you get in hotels? You use them once or twice and then they get tossed. That's a lot of wasted soap, right?...
by Andrew Price
Business
Take a "Digital Detox" Vacation and Get a Hotel Discount
Normally you have to pay a hefty sum when you check into a resort to break an addiction, but these hotels want to help you unplug, for their sake.
by Alex Goldmark
Cities
Picture Show: The Abandoned Rooms of the El Dorado Hotel
When people champion transformations in urban areas, they often use words like "renewal" and "revitalization," as rundown buildings get gutted,...
by GOOD, David Sotelo
Design
Genius Design Innovation: The Melt Tag Saves Trees and Your Skin
Simple but brilliant clothing tags are made of detergent paper, so they dissolve right in the washing machine.
by Elisa Huang