Status Updates From my cool treehouse: an inspi...

This was designed as a bird multi-occupancy 'apartment building' and one-person treehouse. The commonality is an adjoining wall drilled with 78 tiny holes, which results in a unique, experiential birdhouse cum peep show - a conceptual piece brought into reality. The aim was to capture the small but amazing moments in life that we appreciate but don't linger over.

Truly a rock star's treehouse, this was built for Robby Krieger, the guitarist in the Doors, in his Beverley Hills backyard. Robby wanted somewhere to relax, feel immersed in nature, watch the wildlife and, of course, play his guitar.

Using geodesic forms and cocoonish environments, these beautiful tree-strung structures were designed to recreate the experience of a road trip. Up off the ground, separated from the solidity of the real world, they are the ultimate release. These fresh interpretations of treehouses were created with the traditional intention of providing inspiring spaces for people.

The trees grow up through the building of the main restaurant structure. Hemp rope is wound around the junction of the deck and the trunks to allow for movement during high winds. Technically and creatively challenging, this inspirational treehouse successfully combines practical and fantastical elements that can be extracted and condensed for more modest builds. You cannot but admire its scale. It's glorious.

This isn't so much an escape from the real world as an invitation into it. The rules are off-grid and you have to participate and live within these parameters. However, the experience is not uncomfortable or harsh, and there is a satisfying fusion of aesthetics and the sustainable. A sense of calm and tranquility permeates this unique space.

'Gwdy Hw', a Welsh name for 'owl' used by children, is a treehouse set in a larch tree 10m [35ft] above the ground. Larch is a springy and flexible tree, so you can feel the movement within as the wind blows and the tree swings.

Lois Sands is a South African safari complex with history. Its treehouses are an intrinsic part of a holiday experience comprising lodges with private pools and opulent interiors. They are sited on a family-owned property that dates back four generations to a Virginian gold miner turned stockbroker who arrived in 1933 to hunt big game before turning conservationist.

Quinn Petersen is the first to admit his backyard treehouse bucks the trend. For a start, rather than being suspended sky high in the leafy canopy, it sits close to the ground. It wasn't supposed to be a treehouse at all - he ran out of space in his garage and wanted a platform cover for his motorbikes. He modestly claims that the deck and roof just evolved.

In freakishly wild and windy weather, the Sparrow House on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall creaks and sways, clinging onto an ash tree and connecting you to the visceral and elemental experience of living within the natural world.

Treehouses often start off as family projects created specially for children. Here's an example of one that has changed over time, graduating into an urban oasis that has grown up to be a very cool piece of heaven for all the family.

This incredible skyline installation resonates with all of us. It's almost magical - a tree perched on a tall building with a small, fragile but tangible and real space balancing on top. It looks so frail that you feel it could disappear in the blink of an eye and with a strong gust of wind.

The internal space is reached via a simple wooden ladder, creating a metaphorical journey upwards, and up there, off the ground, away from the everyday, a physical and mental transition occurs. This is a restful space where the connection between the recollection and the retelling of the day's journey can hopefully take place.

This unique treehouse takes the form of a pod 1.8m [6ft] in diameter and with a circular seat within its 10sq m [107sq ft]. Access is via a walkway that climbs up the steep slope to the tree. The structural form and physical quality of the weaver bird's nest appealed to Tate because it looks 'dramatic but sage and secure'.

This is no ramshackle rustic retreat, it's an elegant, condensed architectural building in a tree.It mirrors the style of the grand hall and even its detailing is considered - the delicate arch of each window, its peak lining up with the central vertical line of the Elizabethan half-timbering; the diagonal beams perfectly symmetrical; and the turned oak finials at the base of the strong corner posts of the structure.

Drive down a winding country lane in deepest rural England and, round a bend in the road, a clutch of what were once agricultural labourers' cottages and the shockingly beautiful and inspiring Grade I listed Pitchford Hall comes into view. Within the grounds of one of England's finest Elizabethan houses stands what is thought to be the world's oldest treehouse.

The treehouse was designed to provide a unique perspective from which to observe and experience the natural world. It's an ecocentric design conceived to have minimal impact on the tree while providing and open-sided and roofed structure that connects with the environment at large, including the tree canopy.

However, the perfect structural tree was not an option, so a living tree that had fallen over as used as a reference point and the house, supported by steel columns, appears to rise from it, representing the fragile and respectful relationship between the built and the natural.

Gradually, by a process of tinkering and problem solving, their brainwave became a reality. In capturing the essence of tree climbing, the branches themselves became and existential treehouse.

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For the designers Thor ter Kulve and Robert McIntyre, that moment occurred on holiday in the Azores. A high stone wall obscured their sea view, so they climbed a tree and an idea struck them: why not design a simple staircase rising up into the canopy.

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The satisfaction of leaving all your worldly worries behind as you climb up into the sanctuary of a tree is still very seductive. Perhaps it's this other-worldly sensation that grabs ups as children and never leaves us even as we make the transition to adults.

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Literature, too, understands this principle. Magical tales are spun by Enid Blyton or her faraway trees while Tolkien's elf houses and Roald Dahl's The Minpins unashamedly take delight in harnessing the imaginative power of the treehouse.

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