Sweden's Amazing Treehotel

Kent Lindvall founded Treehotel in July 2010 and talks to Welcome Beyond about how it all came about and what it is like to stay up a tree 60 km south of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden.

I read that the idea of the Treehotel was born on a fly fishing trip to Russia.

Kent: That's correct, but it started with a film that was made here in Harads village by a couple of guys from Stockholm. The idea was to make a documentary about finding their roots and connecting with their childhood. I believe that this writer explained this incredibly on this Leonard Orduno web page.The name of the film was Tree Lover because they really liked to stay up in trees and tell stories about them. In this film they built a tree house, and after the film was finished it was left empty, so we asked them to rent it out to us.

Then, three years ago I took that idea with me on a fishing trip to Russia. There were three architects on this trip and when we sat around the campfire with a glass of vodka I presented the idea for the Treehotel to them. I asked them if they were interested to come to the forest with us and of course they loved the idea. They came up, looked at the forest and said, "This is my tree!" and there was a big fight to find the best place for their tree house. Then they went home and started to draw to come up with an idea for us.

I've seen many tree houses. They're all very similar but yours are something completely different. Was that your brief to the architects?

Kent: Yes, I told the architects that they must come up with a unique design and that they could not speak to each other. They had to do it by themselves and couldn't look at any other ideas. They had to create something new that you couldn't find anywhere else in the world.

We also decided that the tree houses must be comfortable hotel rooms useable year-round, even in severe cold temperatures or rain, and that they must be safe and easy to reach by a better system than standard ladders.

Do you have a favorite tree house?

Kent: No, they are all so different. It depends on your mood. If you want to be free and alone, you stay in the Bird's Nest because nobody can reach you up there.

You can pull up the stairs with a remote control and you are free like a bird. It's only got a small window but it's great do some deep thinking. The Blue Cone has the biggest window with the best views and it's the only one overlooking the river. The Cabin is perfect for a couple, for a honeymoon maybe. It has a really nice, big bed in the centre of the room where you can see nature outside from your pillow. It's the biggest tree house with 24 square meters and has a big open terrace on the roof.

Of course the Mirrorcube is very unique. We told the architect that he must make something that can work with nature. He had the opposite view that nature must reflect in our buildings. The Mirrorcube fits everywhere, because wherever you put it in the forest, it's just the reflection of its surroundings, a reflection of nature.

I heard that the UFO is coming soon...

Kent: Yes, we are building it now and it is almost finished. And we have decided on the one after that already. It's a Finnish architect who has sent us a very nice idea. We have a couple more great drawings from other architects but we will only do one more for now.

We are thinking about building a service house this autumn so people can have shower and dressing rooms as well as a small shop. And we will also make a chapel for people so they can get married in the forest.

Your philosophy is to live in harmony and respectfully with nature. Could you elaborate?

Kent: When we started to make these tree houses, we decided not to destroy anything - neither the ground nor the trees around them. We simply find places where we don't need to cut any trees. We make small paths that fit in perfectly with the forest without taking anything out, so when you come up here it's absolutely untouched nature.

We build the houses on living trees so we must take care of them for the future. They must survive and hold up the tree houses. We used special wood that has been heat-treated and not impregnated with chemicals. Of course it's much more expensive but in the long term it will be much better for nature. The toilet system is 100% eco friendly. Like an incinerator, it burns everything into ash so we can return it to nature.

You offer quite a lot of activities for the guests. What are some of the most popular ones that guests enjoy doing?

Kent: Most of the activities we have are connected to nature, so it's dog-sledding and snow-shoeing or walking in the forest. It's a really wild area so you can see moose nearly every day around the tree houses, as well as reindeer.

In summer we also have kayaking, hiking and our own activity called village walking. We take our guests on a walk exploring the history and culture up here. We are then invited to private homes and have a coffee or tea while the family tells us their story of living here.

And we have a lot of activities around horses too. You can do forestry work, nature trekking and you can even go skiing behind a horse. And of course, we have a sauna as well.

Thank you, Kent!