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New Forest Tree House
Exhibition
There is currently an exhibition of the New Forest Study Centre held in The Millais Gallery at Southampton Solent University till September. The exhibition consists of 5 panels detailing the whole design process, including images documenting the build.
Build Progress
The following provides a background to the New Forest Tree House complex being built in Beaulieu for the Countryside Education Trust. Work has already started on site and you can follow the progress of the build below.
July 2008
June 2008
The site at this point had really started to take shape with the main classroom clearly visible and the roof ready for completion.
May 2008
As the construction of the framework developed the major features, such as the turrets soon became more apparent.
April 2008
All the major foundations in place, and workforce numbers started to increase as the construction phase developed.
February 2008
The site had been cleared and with preparation started for tree house foundations to go in. All the major trees in and around the site were dead wooded, by Blue Forests own team of trained tree surgeons.
December 2007
Clearance work starting on site. Test holes have been created to see the density of the roots on site, and ensure no damage was caused to existing trees.
November 2007
The existing site before any work had started by Blue Forest.
Designs for the Tree House Complex unveiled!
Blue Forest Ltd and Novoe Ltd have been working closely with the the winner of the student design competition, Samantha Sherwood, to develop her concept into a workable solution. The designs were recently unveiled at a trustees meeting at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu. Over the next few weeks Blue Forest and Novoe will be working with the Trust and New Forest National Park planners ready to submit a full planning application mid April.
The computer rendered images below are all courtesy of Blue Forest Ltd.
The Solent Centre for Architecture + Design is excited to announce an architectural competition open to all final year undergraduate students attending architecture schools in the South East Region.
Participating students are being asked to produce the concept design for a treehouse study centre to be sited amongst the ancient woodland at the Countryside Education Trust (www.cet.org.uk) in Beaulieu.
The trust is in desperate need of a replacement of its current dilapidated classrooms (known as the New Forest Study Centre) and this facility will provide an incredible resource for use by young people, many from areas of particular inner-city deprivation, across the South East region. Additionally, CET wants to widen the use of the tree house spaces to local community groups.
As well as providing fully for disabled access the classrooms/shelters will be a model of sustainable and environmental design, technology and energy conservation. Construction materials will be sourced within the region, where possible.
15th February 2007
Click here for photos
Supported by
Students Concept Design Competition
Third year architecture students across the south east were invited to submit concept designs for the new tree house buildings. These designs have been on exhibition at Beaulieu National Motor Museum. Students produced some fantastic ideas and made life difficult for the judges to choose the winning design. The winning concept from Samantha Sherwood of Oxford Brookes University and the shortlisted designs are shown below.
The winning concept design:
Samantha Sherwood, Oxford Brookes University
The Runners Up are:
Thomas Lethbridge, Oxford Brookes University
Sameer Mannick, University of Southampton
Shaun Giles, University of Brighton
Andrew Skinner, University of Southampton
Primary School Tree House Lesson Plans
You are welcome to download and use these pdf lesson plans for use in your own classrooms. They have been put together as part of the primary school engagement work leading up to the development of the Tree House project.
introduction.pdf
lesson 1: Tree House Design
lesson 2: A Question of Sustainability
lesson 3: Drawing an Ideal Tree House
lesson 4: Painting Your Ideal Tree House
lesson 5: Organising Your Tree House Data
lesson 6: Life in My Tree House