Dazzle and Pinwheel

They form part of a woodland retreat joining the earlier Woodman’
reehouse, and continue the retreat’s investigation of timber construction and expression. They are related in spirit, particularly in their employment of façade illusions but are highly individual in form and finish.

Both respond similarly to the brief for self-contained 2 person living units providing 35m2 internal and similar sized external environments for short-term lets. The treehouses each provide rigorously organised fluid/open-plan spaces with rich volumetric and material compositions, particularly in the provision of high-quality and playful bespoke joinery.

Dazzle is set in a comparatively open setting and is ‘camouflaged’ with a distinctive dazzle pattern of the type employed to confuse the identity and form of First World War ships. The pattern succeeds in disguising the apparent building shape but not its presence, which is very much in evidence against the woodland backdrop. Dazzle is set between a pair of oaks and comprises two accommodation blocks cleaved apart by a longitudinal axis that is focused on a single vertical larch tree in the woodland beyond.

Pinwheel is set in a ring of mature trees in a discreet corner of the woods. The building is arranged as a cruciform plan with a central top-lit living space surrounded by four subsidiary accommodation blocks, each shifted off-centre to form a distinctive rotational geometry that loosely recalls a child’s ‘pinwheel’ (windmill) toy. Each gable façade features a different single window around which timber rainscreen cladding is arranged in concentric bands. The planks and gaps decrease in width towards the window to form a kaleidoscopic illusion of three-dimensional form in a two-dimensional plane.