The innovative Yellow Treehouse was designed as part of an innovative advertising campaign from Yellow Pages™. The attractive pod structure sits high in a small stand of redwood trees, with an elevated treetop walkway leading guests to the main platform. The ambitious timber design and the challenge of building a structure halfway up a tree demanded some creative engineering: a challenge the Holmes team was delighted to accept.
Yellow Treehouse
A restaurant up a tree!
With Holmes providing the structural engineering and the delivering the dynamic testing, this was a collaboration that brought the sharpest technical skills to the fore. We tested for force and deflection, ensuring the tree would stand up to the load of restaurant staff and guests. Then, with expert help from an arborist, we explored and identified the best way to core through the tree in a way that caused a minimum of damage. The design came together using engineered plantation poplar slats and redwood balustrading that was milled onsite. The pod and walkway were designed to be weather resistant, using acrylic sheeting under the roof and roll down blinds within.
The structure also makes great use of natural light, with the soft tones of the forest lighting up the pod inside and out. This project was delivered on extremely short deadlines—just a couple of months from start to finish, with a striking result. If you’re travelling on the Northern Motorway, you might get a glimpse of the Treehouse through the forest just short of Warkworth. Better still, you could hire it out for a private party!
You can check out the video right here:
