Wrapped around a canopy-high steel frame in the Boy Scouts of America's new West Virginia adventure center, the Sustainability Treehouse is a massive new structure charged with the lofty goal of schooling the next generation on resource-aware practices. Finished last year, it was designed by an interdisciplinary team that included Seattle architecture firm Muthin, Studio Terpeluk, and San Francisco graphic design firm Volume, who planned it to educate with a number of eye-catching exhibits—a lightbulb-powering trycicle, a water-purifying "Rain Chain," a Rube Goldberg-esque "Recyclotron"—but the real draw for easily distracted youngsters is clear: you are in a giant treehouse.
The finished product, planned in conjunction with the BSA's new sustainability merit badge, is a staggered series of connected platforms designed to hold court with some of the world most impressive treehouses. Fittingly enough, the grounds on which it sits is a former strip-mining site converted into a nature preserve. A project description from Mithun characterizes it as a series of "dynamic educational and gathering spaces for exploring and understanding the site and ecosystem at the levels of ground, tree canopy, and sky," aimed at capturing "the wonder of childhood exploration." Feed your own sense of wonder below:
· The Sustainability Treehouse / Mithun [Arch Daily]
· All treehouse coverage [Curbed National]
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