Nest - A Treehouse for Meditation
Competition: Silent Meditation Forest Cabins, BeeBreeders, Open international competition
Prize: 2nd prize in the open category + 1st prize in the student category
Year: 2019
Location: Ozolini farms, Latvia
Status: unbuilt
The visitor follows a path in an ancient forest and is surrounded by tall standing
trees and rare plants. His mind is starting to calm down and to forget the stresses
in his life. From the distance he can see a dark structure up in a tree which´s shape
reminds him from the vernacular Latvian huts that he saw before. He follows
stairs up to a tree, and then a hanging bridge to another tree. He is standing on a
wooden deck surrounded by a stunning view. From the deck he climbs a ladder
up to a treehouse. He has now arrived his home for the next days.
Inside he notices that there is no luxury here. There is nothing extra, just
everything needed for his stay. He goes to sit on a chair in front of a narrow and
tall window. He is now ten meters above the ground level, and this gives him a
feeling of isolation from the surrounding world. He can see the upper parts of
the ancient trees and the sunlight breaking through the canopy, giving the forest
a mystical touch. From this height, behind the trees, he can see a lake shimmering
as the sun sets. All he can hear is the noises of the birds and the wind blowing
through the trees. This framed view makes him effortlessly focus to the present
and to calm his mind. This is the silence he was looking for.
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Nest is a meditative treehouse. The design employs a charred-wood cladding that blends
the cabin with the bark of the forest trees; this material also increases the cabin’s resistance to
inclement weather and decay. On the interior, a light spruce finish gives way to a warm space
that is strikingly different from the exterior shell. The treehouse is decidedly spartan, providing little
else than a protective enclosure to sleep within the forest, and it offers a single vertical window
for observing the surroundings.