A Tree House for Grownups

“One of our charges was to touch lightly on the site,” says architect Tom Murdough. “Elevating the structure off the ground, letting it float, helped in that regard and also heightens the sense of escape.”

The cedar bench flips up to create more space in the tight retreat.

We created a dialogue between the trees themselves and the columns that support the tree house,” Murdough says. A transom on the back end and walls that turn into windows as they reach the ceiling bring in light from all four sides.

Murdough Design project manager Jenny Tjia managed the execution of the fully retractable glazing that connects the inside of the tree house to the 120-square-foot deck—and the landscape beyond.

A House in the Trees

The owner wanted a hideaway, one that not only invited contemplation but would also make her feel like she was
outside even when she was inside, complete with a dappling of light coming through surrounding trees. Architect Tom Murdough designed it for her in the form of a tree-house-like structure that he situated in a small pine grove on her property. And he sited it to face into the woods and away from the stately colonial home the woman shares with her husband, away from the active barn, the firepit, the neighbor’s house. “It is a very intentional removal of visual clutter,” Murdough says. 

To achieve an inside-outside feel in the 100-square-foot space—accessible by a blackened-steel ladder—he fronted it with glass that transitions to western red cedar planks along the sides and back.

The Challenge of Creating a Structure where Materials are Exposed

All the glass fully retracts—accordion style in the front, pocket-door style on the sides—connecting the outside to the inside even further. (Concealed retractable screens keep mosquitos out.) You can enjoy the heat and coziness of the interior’s small wood stove yet essentially touch the outdoors at the same time.

The construction itself, Murdough says, is “almost like a piece of jewelry. Every connection is exposed—steel to glass to wood. It’s a matter of expressing the architectural tectonics,” by which he means the building materials and assembly methods are all visible rather than hidden behind trim or wallboard, giving the structure its aesthetic.

Builder Ian Harper explains that such design expression requires high precision. “There’s very little tolerance for sizing and alignments,” he says. “It’s a departure from how you would normally build something—a rough layer covered by a finished layer.” That is, the rough layer is the finished layer and has to be exactly right.

It is. When you’re up in the tree house, the balance and open expression of the structural elements feel perfect. Better still: at the back you can smell the structure’s cedar. And when you step toward the front, you can smell the pine outside.

Project Team
Architecture: Murdough Design
Builder: Harper Elm