A SUSTAINABLE TREEHOUSE IN WEST VIRGINIA

The Sustainability Treehouse is located at the Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve, a 4,000-hectare tract of land in rural West Virginia. It was designed by Mithun as the permanent home for the two-week-long Jamboree, which takes place every four years and is attended by 50,000 scouts and volunteers. It is a A 38-metre-high tree house.  

The architects specified unfinished materials that would naturally weather, reducing the need for maintenance. These included Corten steel, reclaimed oak and locally sourced black locust, which was used for siding and floors. The building was designed to be self sufficient, so sustainability initiatives were introduced to enable it to generate its own heating, electricity and water. Photovoltaic panels and wind turbines are fixed to the roof, while a 4,500-litre cistern and water cleansing system allows occupants to reuse rainwater and a composting toilet system helps to reduce the water demand. 

A steel staircase leads up through the four main storeys of the structure, which alternate between indoor and outdoor spaces. Exhibitions on each floor teach visitors about sustainability, whilst immersing them into the forest canopy.
 
"The treehouse captures the wonder of childhood exploration and places environmental education at the forefront of meaningful experiences and camp messages for thousands of annual visitors to take home," said Mithun.

The Sustainability Treehouse was one of ten buildings recognised by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) as the top green projects of 2014 and was praised by judges for its "exuberant and expressive design" that is both "contextual and respectful of the site”.

 

The Treehouse provides dynamic educational and gathering spaces for exploring and understanding the site and ecosystem at the levels of ground, , tree conopy, and sky. The towering Corten Steel frame elevates visitors to extraordinary advantagess and provides an armature for Green building systems, such as, photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, and a large cistern and water cleansing system, Interactive exhibits showcase and celebrate sustainable technologies. Overall, the treehouse captures the wonder of chillhood exploration and places environmental education at the Forefront of meaningful experiences and camp messages for thousands  of anual visitors to take home.

 

 

 

 "The project introduces sustainability in a playful manner by getting boy scout campers up into the trees in order to explore the forest canopy and to learn in the living classrooms," said the judges. "The project makes sustainable building techniques easily accessible and understandable."