AUDREY’S HOUSE

When an arborist told us two mature pine trees in our yard were diseased and needed to come down, we started asking what the space could become instead. Working with longtime friends Mark Lewis of Unlikely Creatures and Brian Militana of Militana Studio, collaborators since our days together at IDEO and theirs together at Harvard Graduate School of Design, we designed and built a treehouse over a single summer. With the team spread across the country, we used 3D scanning to map the trees and terrain, which let us create a floating structure that keeps its supports out of sight and preserves long views into the woods. Midway through the build Audrey changed the plan. We suspended a second level beneath the first to create a lower-level entry, and when she kept returning to an old swing under the platform, we cut an opening and made it part of the structure. The vertical wood slats at ladder are a nod to the tree swing Ryan’s father built for him as a kid. Photos were taken by Tony Luong another friend of the studio and family. A true collaboration of friends for a future generation of friends.