Why not create a comfortable, well designed hotel which allows visitors to live in harmony with nature amongst the trees?
This is the question the founders of the Tree Hotel in Harads, Sweden posed themselves and they have done exactly that. Inspired by a Swedish documentary “Trädälskaren” (Treelover) by Jonas Selberg Augustsen the owners have set out to create a hotel in harmony with its surroundings, that celebrates the trees but incorporates modern, innovative design. And the result is spectacular.
Set high up near the Arctic Circle in the locality of Harads in Norbotten County, the hotel is a delicious mix of breathtaking scenery and equally breathtaking designs. If you ever dreamed of the ultimate treehouse when you were a child it probably never looked anything like this. Designed by leading Swedish architects and fitted out by a dizzying array of Swedish design talent there are currently five rooms to choose from, in addition to a spectacular sauna. From the Birds Nest, to the Blue Cone (red actually, confusingly!), the UFO and the Mirrorcube, which hangs invisibly between the trees, there ought to be something for everyone.
The rooms were completed in 2010 with a further 24 planned to be completed in 2012 and, if the current crop are anything to go by, they ought to be stunning. This ticks all the boxes for me, sustainable, beautifully designed, in harmony with its surroundings. It’s ecologically sound but hasn’t sacrificed its aesthetics.
The rooms aren’t particularly big, and it’s not cheap, but then, would you want it to be? This is boutique luxury set in some of the most spectacular countryside in Europe, featuring cutting edge Scandinavian design, and who would argue that our northern European cousins are leading the way in sustainable design these days? The right things, done perfectly, done brilliantly in fact.
Rooms start from 3500 Swedish krona.
Looking for more tree house inspiration? Design blog Toxel.com put together this list of some of the more unusual tree dwellings out there.
