Architects Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski have built a slatted wooden construction all around an old pine tree to update a courtyard room at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (+ slideshow).

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

Situated at the entrance of the Israel Museum’s Youth Wing for Artwork Education, the IMJ Tree House provides a gathering point for both adult and children site visitors.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

“As a tribute to the childhood collective memory of a treehouse, we positioned a small roofed construction where kids can hide and overlook at higher up a tilted trunk raised above the meticulous surroundings of the museum,” said the architects.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

The treehouse is produced up of two-centimetre-thick hardwood boards fixed onto a steel skeleton – contrasting with its concrete and stone architectural surroundings.


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A decked platform produces a seating region around the outdoors of the playground before ramping up to offer access to the treehouse. Young children can also enter and exit the structure by means of a metal pole with foot pegs.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

A hole in the treehouse floor accommodates the pine trunk, and provides another surface to clamber up.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

An undulating ground topography surrounds the building. It is covered with a soft EPDM rubber surface – the exact same materials employed by Simon Conder Associates to cover a beach house on the English coast.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

“The rubber surface hides the underground infrastructure configuration, as nicely as a widespread root program from the pine tree,” said the architects.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

At night, the treehouse is the only spot of the playground to be illuminated.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah Warschawski

Other unusual treehouse designs includes a pair of woodland hideaways inspired by snakes, and a stilted holiday property overlooking the Sri Lankan jungle.

Photography is by Amit Geron.

IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah WarschawskiIdea diagram one particular – click for more substantial picture IMJ tree house by Ifat Finkelman and Deborah WarschawskiConcept diagram two – click for more substantial image


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A stainless-steel slide curls down via the interior of this elevated playhouse, which is topped by a crow’s nest offering views in excess of New York’s Hudson River Valley (+ slideshow). More »

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