Designed by Russia's A. Masow studio, this gorgeous glass confection is a modern-day tree house. The three-storied circular building will be constructed around a 40-foot fir tree; a cylindrical glass shaft and a circular staircase will encapsulate the trunk and its branches, allowing the home's denizens to both be immersed in nature and harbored from it at the same time.
About the house, Aibek Almasov of A. Masow Design Studio told World Architecture News:
The client was a businessman at the age of 38 years. His brief was to create a home for a couple; it was to be a place where you could sit with a friend and discuss ideas and philosophise. The house has to be something that can develop your spiritual and creative development.
According to A. Masow Studio, the house will be built in the mountainous region Almaty, Kazakhstan, an area where the average built home sells for almost $1.1 million dollars. Comparatively, the treehouse will end up being cheap for its new owner: the final price tag on the project is expected to be just $375,000, including the price of design, materials, and land. Almasov says that these savings have been enough to bring three more clients to his firm, hoping to build similar houses in the region.
The A. Masow treehouse is slated for completion this year. It will be constructed with metal columns, plasterboard panels, concrete and wood flooring, and floor-to-ceiling windows. We won't deny that there are a few eyebrow-raising design flaws here--imagine looking up from your magazine on the commode to see the faces of a couple of gawping hikers pressed against the glass--but if Jony Ive were going to become a hermit, this is where he'd likely do it.