Penfold: Treeless Treehouse

By and large, tree houses have a simple shape, squares with a monotonous triangular roof. However, De Matos Ryan tried to present an uncharacteristic design in a project 'treeless tree house.' This is "Penfold," a pyramid-shaped treehouse built in the courtyard of a house in London. Penfold was built as a playhouse for the children of the client.

"Our clients are young families who are mourning the loss of trees in their neighbor's garden. Children are eager to have a tree house but do not have their tree. So the challenge is to design a tree house without a tree," De Matos Ryan said.

(De Matos Ryan has created a 'treeless treehouse' in the courtyard of the house, London)

In the design, the team worked closely with the client's children to find out their imagination about treehouse life. From discussions with the client's children, the team came up with a design idea that referred to their favorite cartoon, Danger Mouse, and their imagination of a tall crow's nest lurking around it.

(This treehouse is called "Penfold")

The name Penfold was adopted from one of the Danger Mouse characters, a hamster with glasses who protects the world from various dangers. This is associated with treehouse volume programs that have low crawlspace on the building base. In other words, this Penfold treehouse can only be accessed by crawling from the base of the building such as providing a vehicle for children to 'scout' like Penfold in a cartoon.

(Equipped with a wooden ladder connecting two levels inside)

Upon entering Penfold, the children imagined being a crow watching the surroundings from inside the 4.1-meter-high nest. This tree house was built using an evergreen wooden structure with two levels inside. Like tree houses in general, Penfold is also equipped with wooden stairs with ropes that are accessible from both floors. Meanwhile, triangular windows are also placed at different heights to support the lurking experience at various points.

(Inside the Penfold there is an LED light that allows children to play until the evening)

Uniquely, this two-story treehouse has a skylight that can be opened at the top of the pyramid. Equipped with an automatic sensor, the skylight can close by itself when it rains. Not only that, De Matos Ryan added a steel cable grating arranged on the outside of the wooden structure, and then it will gradually be planted with vines. In a few months, the vine will fill the tree house.

(The triangular window serves as a natural light source)