Hideaway

Lead architect Angie Chadwick of Apio Arquitectos explains of the client, "They were looking for a place with no phone connections or internet access, so they can really get connected with nature and family life. We started the project with the ambition of making a place where they can spend a simple day together, cooking, playing, reading, fishing."

Exposed beams and a cantilevered loft soar over the high-traffic eating area, giving the family a sense of spaciousness.

The home is made up of two parts: a rear wing containing the studio and a guest room, and the north-facing living quarters (which, in the southern hemisphere, attract the most sun) overlooking the lake.

Maintaining the tree house has been a rather simple job. "It gets somewhat slick when it rains but it's holding up well," Laurie says. Besides brushing off leaves in the fall, there's little other work to do.Photograph courtesy of Laurie Stubb.

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa lived in his art project tree house, made from found materials, for two fortnights, as part of his artist residency at La Practica at Beta-Local. "The Practice" is an interdisciplinary program of research and production focusing on art, architecture, and design, with an emphasis on collaboration.

Located outside of Mexico City, Casa GP by architecture firm Ambrosi | Etchegaray integrates the local landscape with features like this pond.

Von Trapp resort and farm in Vermont.

Mid-century designer Jens Risom's A-framed prefab family retreat, located on the northern portion of Block island, is bordered by a low stone wall, an aesthetic element that appears throughout the land.

Erin Moore of FLOAT Architectural Research and Design, based in Tucson, Arizona, designed a 70-square-foot writer’s retreat in Wren, Oregon, for her mother, Kathleen Dean Moore, a nature writer and professor of philosophy at nearby Oregon State University. The elder Moore wanted a small studio in which to work and observe the delicate wetland ecosystem on the banks of the Marys River. Enlisting her daughter’s design expertise, her professor husband’s carpentry savoir faire, the aid of friends, and a front loader, Kathleen and her crew erected the structure in September 2007. Photo by Gary Tarleton. Totally off the grid—–Kathleen forgoes the computer and writes by hand when there—–the Watershed was designed to tread as lightly on the fragile ecosystem as the wild turkeys and Western pond turtles that live nearby. “

The 4TREEHOUSE features a futuristic illuminated facade that looks like something straight out of a science fiction movie.

San Francisco firm Lundberg Design built this cabin out of reclaimed materials, including the exterior redwood, which has aged into an elegant, ashen gray. In a past life, the pool acted as a water tank for livestock.

At just 350 square feet, this remote cabin with a view for the Sol Duc River sits on stilts to protect it from flooding and the dampness of the northwestern rainforest. Its shutters can be operated manually by custom steel rods.

Estate Bungalow in Matugama, Sri Lanka, by Narein Perera as published in Cabins (Taschen, 2014).

Though the retreat is clearly meant to afford the solitude writing so often requires, Kathleen reports that "it's very lively. Deer approach, birds bathe. The sun warms my desk and you can hear the rain."

Though a clear celebration of Sweden's intense but fleeting summer seasons, the cabin is used year-round, and was constructed in eight months.

On Viggsö, an island of the Swedish Archipelago, architecture firm Arrhov Frick designed a two-story retreat, using simple but hardy materials. The roof, made from corrugated metal and fiber-reinforced plastic, joins the pine timber frame.

Atop a living module that contains a kitchen and eating and living areas, Dominic Stevens waters the sod roof, which, like the rest of the house, is a perennial work in progress.

The showers are made from stock-watering tanks from the Ideal Stock Tank Co. and have waterproof canvas curtains. Less expensive than prefab shower-tub units, stock tanks are built of weatherproof galvanized steel and are sturdy enough for cows to drink from—–and, ergo, for you to bathe in.