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Uncle Tom`s Cabins

We have created two very exclusive garden houses for Tom and his family.
We have designed and constructed the facades of both houses with mirrored stainless steel, which give the projects an exceptional look.
 
2014 was a very special year for the Oldenburger Schlossgarten (Oldenburg Castle Garden). This wonderful park was created 200 years ago and has since become a place of pilgrimage for botanists and all who seek a place of recreation in the center of the city. This anniversary was to be celebrated with many events and exhibitions. The event organizers had the idea to make the park as well as its beautiful trees a special experience for a limited period by incorporating one or more tree houses into it.

Our concept was comprised of five identical cubes, which were installed on very special points throughout the park. Four of these 2.5 x 2.5 meters large rooms were treehouses that float in between groups of trees. The other last cube stood in the lake and was accessible by a footbridge that reached out to it from the shore.

Following a quick installation, the tree houses were inaugurated during the anniversary event that took place on April the 25th, with the presence of the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony Stephen Weil, and afterwards they were opened to the public.
From then onwards, visitors could enjoy a picnic among the leaves and perceive the beautiful park from another perspective. The treehouses accentuated special details of the park, for example: the visitors could take a look over a high wall normally not accessible to them, or experience close up the beautiful flowers of the blooming tulip trees.

Even the color scheme of the acrylic glassed bodies was intended to underline the special nature of the particular environment. And so the white tree house nestled in the tulip trees replicated the color of its flowers and the dark blue of the treehouse facing the garden wall reflected its enchanting surroundings. A sublime Dawn Redwood received a black cube, and at the park entrance, over a large meadow, hovered a striking light blue treehouse between two stately trees welcoming all park visitors. Based on the flowers of water lilies, the house that floated above the water surface of the castle garden pond received the color magenta.

Decorated with benches and a table, the treehouses invited visitors for short stays as well as long ones. During the four and a half months that they were mounted in the castle garden, the installations were very popular places for people of all ages. Each tree house was equipped with guest books which quickly filled with entries. Some, probably teenagers, marked these places with small inscriptions and engravings on the benches and tables. This variant of appropriation was not part of the concept and was initially met with unrequited love from the Park keepers. But after a while, one became to appreciate this kind of lively communication and individual expression.

Trees: Two Tulip trees, a Dawn Redwood and a Cedar, two Oak trees, two Dawn Redwoods
Height: 3, 20 m
Bearing system: Four tree houses hang each from a pair of trees by steel ropes connected to the trees with textile belts. The house over the castle pond stands on a steel pipe scaffolding and large steel columns that go into the water.
Interior space: 6,00 sqm
Cabin Construction: Floor: Steel frame and Larch planks, Walls: squared timber framework in Larch 80 x 80 mm; 21 mm plywood boards; 6 mm backside color coated acrylic panels.