From houses and homes to resorts and hotels, there is a fierce debate over whether the concepts of
‘luxurious’ and ‘eco-friendly’ can co-exist in a single architectural design. Designed to be completely energy-independent, this curiously creative design attempts to find a balance between sustainability, luxury and style.
This luxury forest home has no windows, allowing year-round natural ventilation essential for an off-the-grid home designed for a tropical setting. Exterior overhangs shield the house from harsh direct sunlight and give it a broader footprint for capturing water to be reused from its curved rooftops (stored in on-site tanks).
Lofted above the ground and cantilevered out into the forest, one has the sense of living in a treehouse with internal luxuries but constant visual access to the natural world around.
The tree home concept is reinforced by ever-curving interior lines and furniture designs, intended to blend in terms of both hue and shape with the environmental context.
Shaped like some kind of futuristic spaceship, the home is actually designed with the environment strongly in mind – from rain water filtration for kitchen and bathroom usage and natural ventilation in all spaces that border on the outside world to solar power generation for low-power on-site LEDs, all part of keeping this house free of the electrical grid. Does this home successfully combine ideas of green design and luxury living or does its use of complex shapes and non-local materials negate its designation as an eco-friendly residence?
