As Dezeen reports, the architects at Opposite Office have found a way around Munich office rents: move into about one square meter, up a tree.
What happened: Founder Benedikt Hartl built Baumhaus Office on the Bauhaus University campus in Weimar from hardware-store spruce and plywood, partly clad in aluminum. It has a ladder, a domed skylight, a desk, shelves and fold-down work surfaces.
Zoom in: The whole thing is held on by two ratchet straps over padded matting. There's no foundation and no screws in the tree. Hartl calls it "a very convincing embrace."
- According to the studio, the tree is one of Weimar's oldest and was reportedly planted by Goethe.
- Hartl admits the first few days were unnerving, until an engineer supervised a crowd load test.
Our take: Plenty of people would climb a ladder for an hour of uninterrupted quiet. Hartl did it for the rent. Either way, it's a reminder that a good workspace has less to do with square footage than with what the space lets you do.
