THE TREEHOUSE

The treehouse is an uber modular courtyard housing aimed to tackle a harmonic medium between the public and the private. The design seeks to challenge the dearth of greenery in the concrete industrial town of Leimert Park by incorporating flora both vertically and horizontally.

Planning space with a sense of scale was the whole idea behind such a low cost affordable housing, hence, the design sought to meet its housing requirements by housing 60 plus people in only two floors without making it seem too dense and claustrophobic. This was done through integration of a diversity of spaces while keeping in mind a general resolved and thus harmonic elevation, section and plan.

The residential floors are sandwiched between two public floors integrating the eatery (along with recreational and instructional spaces) at the bottom with a roof forest/nursery at the top. Hence, providing a dynamic loop for its own management and sustenance.

At the treehouse’s core laid this key concept of sustainable integration which deals with seamless physical (through stairs and elevators) and visual (through jumping voids) connect between inhabitants and the wider neighbourhood. All the while using hundred percent sustainable CLT which further integrates with the design’s ultra green tone.

Through the jumping green voids, the courtyard, photovoltaic and water management, and nutritionally sustaining the neighbourhood through its eatery and nursery, the treehouse philosophically mirrors the sustainable and independent habitat of a standing tree.