There are cabins and tree houses – and then there’s this Vancouver tree hotel, whose rooms look like baubles hanging in the forest.
Freedom Spirit Spheres, as the Qualicum Beach complex is known, comprises three spherical hotel rooms that are tethered to trees by ropes in the coastal rainforest of Vancouver Island.
‘Normal buildings are all about separation,’ says their designer Tom Chudleigh. ‘When you step into a sphere, there is no separation, there’s only one wall.’
Each sphere – dubbed Eve, Eryn and Melody – has a bed, heater, sink and wi-fi, as well as views of the surrounding tree canopy. The treehouses range from 9 ft to 10.5ft in diameter, with Melody constructed in fibreglass, and all of them accessible by winding rope and timber staircases.
Chudleigh designs each cabin from scratch himself, and they take around three years to build.
The Freedom Spirit Spheres are available to rent overnight starting from $175 per night. Melody can also be transformed into a workspace, for a creative getaway….
They’re not the only spherical cabin for rent however: a series of transparent bubble cabins in Iceland lets you watch the Northern Lights from the comfort of your bed.
