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All Photos/exterior/building type : treehouse

Exterior Treehouse Design Photos and Ideas

Moss-covered boulders at the base of Colorado Camelot tree house helped to inspire the design for the compact structure.
The Colorado Camelot tree house in Manitou Springs, Colorado, is wrapped with Douglas fir and features a deck pierced by tree trunks.
The 260-square-foot tree house in Melides that Madeiguincho designed was inspired by a pair of centenary pine trees.
Designed by Madeiguincho, the Columba tree house has handbuilt furniture, a roof deck, and a slide.
Woven into a stand of redwoods on Jason Titus and Nerija Sinkevičiūtė-Titus’s property in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a tree house by San Francisco designer/artist Jay Nelson gives the couple and their three boys a new perspective on the forest.
At Vietnam’s forested resort Ta Nung Homestay, Ho Chi Minh City–based Mỹ An Architects designed geometric pine-clad cabins as a collaborative live-work space for resort employees. Two cabins, totaling 5,400 square feet, are connected by an expansive shared timber deck that is elevated on stilts, hovering above the forest floor.
The two new buildings create a courtyard-like feel in the small urban backyard.
The Sapling showcases a tree growing through a gazebo with a hexagonal opening on the rear deck.
The Sapling is clad with board-and-batten and features a gazebo with a hexagonal opening on the rear deck.
The Sycamore tree house is perched on hill above a creek.
The Live Oak is one of three playful tree houses available to rent at HoneyTree Farm in Fredericksburg, Texas.
The 7th Room is a remarkable accommodation at Sweden’s Tree Hotel that blends into its natural surroundings with a stark black facade. Snøhetta designed the structure, which features an expansive, black-and-white mural of the tree canopy stretched across its base. You can sleep in the beautiful cabin—or if you are brave, under the stars in a giant lofted hammock slung between the two bedrooms.
Constructed with sustainably sourced lumber and large, double-pane windows, Studio Shed’s all-season Signature Series units are popularly used as backyard offices.
Designed and built by Oakland–based O2 Treehouse, the Pinecone is a five-and-a-half-ton geodesic home that can be installed in the forest or in your own backyard. The treehouse, accessed via a wood ladder and a trap door, is constructed from steel, wood, and glass that integrates into the forest canopy. Inside, 64 diamond-shaped windows provide 360-degree views of the surrounding forest or landscape. Even the floors are composed of transparent panels—enhancing the sensation of floating above the earth.
Modern in Montana: a Flathead Lake cabin that's a grownup version of a treehouse.
Aqua Wellness Resort features minimalist cabins on a private inlet of Nicaragua’s Emerald Coast. This is a great place to truly unplug and enjoy “barefoot luxury” in your private tree house.
This quaint cabin operates completely off the grid with no internet access.
The Woodman's Tree House stands interwoven into the landscape in Dorset as part of a larger luxury camping site.
"You really get the sense that you are just floating up there in a different world," remarks Chudleigh.
The cabin's curved zinc shell exudes a rugged, industrial look.
The petite prefab cabin only took eight days to assemble once arriving to Switzerland.
Measuring 118 feet tall, the structure provides guests with forest views without ever surpassing the trees themselves.
The stacked volumes add a playful element to the overall design.
The angular cabins overlook breathtaking forest vistas.
A rooftop terrace awaits guests at the top of the staircase and provides panoramic views.
The exterior is vertically clad in timber to complement the spiraling design and surrounding red cedar trees.
ArtisTree's cabin towers 25 feet above the stream of water below, and it's anchored by ropes, chains, and cables.
Visitors learn about energy and water conservation as they climb outdoor staircases that lead from the forest floor to the 125-foot-high rooftop rising above the leaf canopy.
The deck of Atelier Victoria Migliore's tree house in France has two swings attached.
Ethan Schussler built his first tree house at 12 years old. His tree house in Sandpoint, Idaho, sits 30 feet above the ground and can be accessed by an "elevator" consisting of a bicycle that, when pedaled, ascends a pulley system to the top.
The 4TREEHOUSE features a futuristic illuminated facade that looks like something straight out of a science fiction movie.
Framing picturesque views of a small valley and nearby orchard, Baumhaus Halden is comprised of a steel frame with four wooden support beams.
An exterior view shows how the building wraps around the site’s existing trees.
Stilts elevate the home three to 10 feet above the ground. The firm suspended the building in order to preserve the root systems of the surrounding trees.
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.
Scale was an important design factor. "We wanted it to be flexible," Laurie says. "It's scaled down for a child but is also tall enough so an adult can walk in it." The height between the floor of the lower platform and its ceiling is six feet—so taller adults do still need to duck slightly, but most can make it through. "Kids are small for a very short time and then they grow up and go to college and you're left with this structure," she says. "We wanted it to have a use after they're gone." Pictured here is Laurie and Peter's daughter Emily.Photograph courtesy of Laurie Stubb.
@sticks.and.bricks: it's #treehouse season! please excuse me while I go #playintheyard.
A mere 172 square feet, the treehouse in the hills of Brentwood in Los Angeles was designed by Rockefeller Partners Architects, Inc. as a refuge, gallery and guest cottage
Estate Bungalow in Matugama, Sri Lanka, by Narein Perera as published in Cabins (Taschen, 2014).
Inspired by the principle of Biomimicry, Free Spirit Spheres’ goal is to “create new ways of living that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.” Based outside of Vancouver, the company specializes in tiny spherical tree houses that are works of art. You can even book an escape to spend the night in one at their forest hotels!
Japanese architect Takashi Kobayashi of the Tree House People has been declared a “tree house master” by Design Made in Japan. Seamlessly integrating nature and design, this tiny tree house is certainly not just for children.
The Treehouse, also part of the Post Ranch Inn, features Cor-ten panels.
The roof is standing-seam galvanized metal and the siding is Thermory driftwood.
"The most challenging part of the project was the fact that the foundation started 25 feet in the air. Until the foundation was built, every piece of material needed to be rigged into place via ropes, chains, and cables," Will says.
Elevated above a spring-fed creek, Yoki draws inspiration from the "healing powers of water."
Exterior view looking at upper and lower level bathrooms
Close up view of upper level bathroom facade
Niraamaya Retreats Cardamom Club is spread out across 8 acres of cardamom plantations.
The three-story Blue Lake Retreat is located in Marble Falls, Texas. The residence was designed by Lake Flato Architects to integrate naturally into the steep topography. With living spaces on the top floor and four bedrooms on the two lower floors, the timber structure is connected to the hillside by a bridge and boasts a cantilevered deck that floats just above the lake.
The Sustainability tree house is home base for the National Scout Jamboree, a weeklong event that's usually held every four years. The 2013 event was the first held at the new location in the Summit Bechtel Reserve. Seattle-based firm Mithun led the multidisciplinary team that worked on the project. BNIM is the architect of record, Nelson Byrd Woltz masterminded the landscaping, the structural engineering is by by Tipping Mar, and the exhibit design is by Volume, Inc. and Studio Terpeluk.
Mithun wanted to engage the scouts with all elements of the forest: the floor, the canopy, and a perspective above the tree tops. In one of the viewing rooms, visitors get the feeling of being fully surrounded by leaves.
The structure's mission is to teach visitors about the environment and sustainability. San Francisco–based studio Volume designed the exhibition program, which offers interactive displays about water conservation, energy use, recycling, and more.
Visitors scale a series of outdoor staircases that wind their way up the structure. Volume and Studio Terpeluk turned the risers into a teaching moment about energy use and the impact of every day activities.
Mithun designed the tree house so that it would tread lightly on the land. The firm originally considered prefabricating the entire structure offsite but, in the research process, concluded that craning large modules into place would potentially harm the canopy. A combination of a bolted-together prefab structure and site-built wood housing yielded the least intrusive construction option. The Summit Bechtel Reserve is located in West Virginia's coal mining country. The architects looked to the local structures—bridges, mining apparatus, and other industrial buildings—to inform the tree house's design. A 166-ton Cor-Ten steel megastructure supports the 125-foot-tall building. The use of regionally appropriate materials, like steel and black locust wood, was important to the architects.
The polycarbonate interior is bounded by an exterior band of reclaimed white-cedar siding, open to the sky.
John Milich fabricated the slide in the freestanding treehouse.
Davis worked with contractor Ted Timmer to construct the playhouse on her family’s 30-acre property.
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