In everyday life, birds of all kinds can be seen everywhere, and there are many different ways of bird watching, from taking pictures of them in front of power poles or in the treetops with mobile phones, to professionals with binoculars or carrying "long guns" to capture every detail of the birds in nature.
▲ Image from: All About Birds
In Lappland in northern Sweden, there is an even more unique way of bird watching - 'immersive bird watching' in a tree house.
Treehotel, the Swedish signature treehouse hotel, has partnered with ornithologist Ulf Öhman and Danish architecture firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) to create Biosphere, a treehouse "surrounded" by birdhouses, which will be available for booking from May 2022. Reservations will be accepted from May 2022.
▲Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
There are 340 wooden rooms, all similar in appearance to the birdhouses, and each room is approximately thirty-four square meters in size. In the rooms, there is no shortage of infrastructure such as beds and bathrooms. In addition, each room is a unique "observation point".
▲Image from: Treehotel
The part of the room facing the forest has a number of areas designed with large expanses of glass, through which it is possible to observe the many species of birds in the forest outside the windows. And of course, other animals in the forest. If you want to get even closer to the forest, you can also go to the roof terrace near the top of the trees for a 360-degree view.
▲Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
Unlike the usual treehouse form, Biosphere is more like a giant collection of birdhouses floating in the forest, and with the only access to the treehouse being a suspension bridge that slopes from the ground to the top of the trees, the whole treehouse feels like a natural part of the forest.
▲ Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
With this design, it is as if people live like birds in a birdhouse high up in the forest, 'wrapped' in nature. There is no impact on the birds and other creatures that inhabit the forest, but it also allows for an immersive and close observation that satisfies, and perhaps attracts birds to nest near the tree house.
The reason for designing such a tree house can be guessed a few times from its name Biosphere (Biosphere). Today many bird populations are declining and the development of forestry has led to a reduction in the extent to which trees can breed bird nests, making the artificial installation of bird nests an important measure.
▲ Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
The Biosphere tree house was built in the hope of reducing the spiralling decline of the bird population in the Swedish forests and also to strengthen the biosphere and habitat. It is hoped that people will be able to observe birds up close, that they will have a better experience of nature in a tree house located in an ecological habitat, and that more and more people will be willing to install birdhouses near their homes.
▲ Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
It is worth mentioning that apart from the special Biosphere Treehouse, the Treehotel also has a number of buildings of different shapes and sizes, from UFO-like ones to birdhouses with branches reaching out in all directions, and the futuristic "Mirror Cube" ......
▲Image from: Bjarke Ingels Group
Waking up from sleep with the sound of sunlight and birds chirping through the glass, walking to the window and looking into the lush forest, you may see the birds printed on the illustration, or perhaps other animals. Such an 'immersive bird watching experience' must be something else.