Like Pooh’s “Home Sweet Home” in the Hundred Acre Wood, this Quiet Treehouse provides the perfect respite from daily woes. It’s especially sweet that this little fantasy unit will be an addition to the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice in Sussex, England.
This particular unit is not actually built into the branches or attached to a tree. It is a free-standing rendition in the round that closely resembles a tree, with a triple trunk buttress as the supporting structure and willowy “branches” of Kebony (alternative hardwood product) streaming down the sides. But the most special feature of the Quiet Treehouse is its acoustic consideration.
In a collaboration between reputed contributors, the Quiet Treehouse is a state-of-the-art example of technology and design put to best use. Blue Forest created the structural design and handled the construction; Quiet Mark took on the sound engineering and equipment; and John Lewis (famed UK department store and 2013 “Retailer of the Year”) provided interior amenities and promotional event planning.
Creating specialty tree houses, from the elaborate to the sublime, is the norm for Blue Forest, where prices can range from about $30,000 and go way up from there, depending on the purchaser’s desires. But the firm doesn’t limit its expertise to treehouses. They are all about the fun and prove it with their “eco-lodges” and other play areas and structures. Blue Forest is a full-service team that takes the project from design to construction. And if a suitable tree is not available, the structures can be built on stilts. They’ll even help you get through local zoning queries since their unique structures obviously don’t meet a standard definition of construction requirements. Once the design is determined and the details in place, the construction process typically takes a couple of months. Getting in and out can be an adventure all its own, ranging from rope ladders and spiral staircases to bridges and slide exits.
blue forest
Quiet Mark sets the standard in the UK for noise abatement with their philosophy and technology focused on the elimination of “noise pollution.” It was their initiative that brought the team together with John Lewis and Blue Forest to construct the Quiet Treehouse as a model of “quiet capabilities” in our living spaces and pleasant sounds in our environment at large.
The Treehouse traveled to The Ideal Homeshow and then the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show to be demonstrated in a garden setting, and then on the Chestnut Treehouse Children’s Hospice. Material donors to the project are well-known brands such as Rockwool, Acoustiblok, Panasonic and Lexus, but there were also many lesser known names that made great contributions in their own fields of expertise. The end result was a structure that each contributor can be proud to take part in and a moment of fantasy for some 300 very deserving kids.
blue forest
The Quiet Treehouse will be set in the new Woodlands Walk area at Chestnut, a wheelchair friendly trek through a natural habitat. One parent marveled, “When my daughter sees the treehouse I know her emotions will soar. To be able to go up and see the trees and nature close up and look down from a height, her imagination will be stimulated in new directions. I cannot wait to see the smiles on her face when she can see and touch and feel the things that most of us take for granted every day.”
Though this Quiet Treehouse is designed as a whisper of tranquility, it screams volumes about the creative ways a few good companies and their innovative products can create a “world of good.”
blue forest
blue forest
