The prevailing view may be that treehouses are just for children, but in reality adults, too, can live out their childhood dream up in a tree.
Many designers around the world have taken up the design and construction of treehouses, so that what we see is no longer just a few planks laid across a branch, but a space in which we can relax and feel at one with nature.
The history of treehouses
Treehouses were first built by the peoples of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, who were looking for safety for their families.
In the Middle Ages, Frankish monks used simple rooms in trees for meditation, while Hindu monks used them to free their minds from the limits of thought.
During the Renaissance, the treehouse was a “must have” for the gardens of homes in Florence.
In the mid-19th century, a town near Paris, Plessy Robinson, became famous for its treehouse restaurants.
In more recent times, Winston Churchill built a treehouse 20 feet (609.6 centimetres) high in a lime tree at his home, Chartwell Manor, and John Lennon was rumoured to have had a treehouse overlooking the Strawberry Fields orphanage.
Edited by: Maria Glykeria Marangianou
