Inventive treehouses, which have enamored big families, newlyweds, and researchers alike, has recently also inspired a facility for cancer patients, one intended to be bright and (perhaps literally) uplifting. London-based firm Wilkinson Eyre Architects just completed a new care facility perched on the woody grounds of the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England.
As the architects write on their website, "the tree house concept maximizes the relationship between the internal space and external landscape, offering discreet spaces for relaxation, information and therapy." In practice, this means erecting a glass-and-wood structure on top of timber stilts, with three wings that extend toward the trees. The building, which was pre-fabricated in Germany and assembled on site, has an open plan kitchen and dining space as its central core. It also features an external terrace and of course, a stairway down to the ground level. This design is actually one of over a dozen similar projects commissioned by Maggie's Centre, a charity dedicated to serving cancer patients and their families—in fact, a facility designed by OMA opened in 2011, and another one to be designed by Steven Holl just got approved this past summer.
· A Cancer Support Center Designed Like A Treehouse [Co.Design]
· All Tree Houses posts [Curbed National]