Forget about the treehouse of your childhood dreams. Now the clubhouses that served as hiding places are being constructed as adult living spaces.
“World’s Most Extreme Homes” visits such an abode in Auckland, New Zealand, in an upcoming HGTV special. Encircled by greenery, host Ruth England struggles up a hill leading to the treehouse. “You’d think I was deep in the Borneo rainforest,” she says, but she’s just five minutes from a bustling metropolis.
For homeowners Patrick Clifford, wife Leslie Forsythe and their three children, the real treat is the way the house blends outside with inside. Floor-to-ceiling windows let in abundant light, and some of the rooms, such as the al fresco kitchen, extend outdoors. The master bedroom juts into the surrounding treetops, creating a tranquil sanctuary.
The series, a spin-off of “Extreme Homes,” highlights imaginative, sometimes offbeat, architecture and the people who live in unusual structures.
For a larger swath of nature, Ruth England goes to Sweden’s Glaskogens Nature Preserve to the timber-framed, accordion-shaped house of Boris Zeisser and his partner, Maartje Lammers. England compares the house’s expandable, snout-like hull to a “caterpillar, rhino and tortoise.”
“Why does your house look like a monster?” she asks the homeowners. “It does look like a monster.”
England should mind her manners.
“It’s more like an animal in the forest,” Lammers says gently.
Further exploration reveals an exterior covered in layers of cedar shingles, and an outhouse and hot tub complete the rustic feel.
Most playful is a steel sphere in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The cylindrical red house tops a thin post, giving it a lollipop look. Nestled among ordinary neighbors, the house could double as a three-dimensional stop sign.
“People mistake it for a radio station, club or hotel,” says owner Lucas Longo, whose father built the house in the 1980s. “The last thing they’ll think is that it’s a house.” There are no stairs in the sphere, only ramps, and furniture has to be custom-made. Even the windows are round.
Longo giddily shows off another childhood remnant, resembling a human tetherball as he sways from a rope attached to the outside of the sphere. “Now when I’m stressed out at work, I just go down there, do a couple of swings and get some stress out,” he says. Is it too late to ask Santa Claus for one?
HGTV will broadcast “World’s Most Extreme Homes” on Jan. 2 at noon and on subsequent Mondays at 8 p.m.
Spud loses the remote
– House & Garden publishes the results of its fall online survey in the January issue. A notable addition to American homes, the magazine finds, is “flex space,” a room that can be used for exercise, crafts or guests. Not surprisingly, technology has all but done away with the media room as its importance has grown past video games and VCRs.
– House Beautiful’s January issue gives a primer on how to organize your garage, as well as tips for making small spaces seem larger.
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Carmel Carrillo is assistant editor of Real Estate. You may contact her at [email protected], or write to her at baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.