Organic houses

In their day architects as important as Antoni Gaudí, Alvar Aalto or Frank Lloyd were seduced by the new ways of architecture, when the discipline began looking to nature to find original shapes and organic materials. Captivated by this modern horizon which gave a new twist to their inexhaustible imagination, they promoted the evolution of this architectural tendency. Today, thanks to the awareness of a fair chunk of the planet, this genre of constructions – a lifestyle in their own right – are more in fashion than ever.

One example is the Organic House by architect Javier Sesosiain in Naucalpan, Mexico, inspired by a peanut shell. People enter it as though they were penetrating to the centre of the Earth, but without losing sight of the green areas outside. Also in Mexico, in Tulum to be precise, the contemporary art gallery IK LAB is integrated into a tourist complex of luxury ecological residences.

Another contemporary emblem is the Shell House, built by the Japanese studio ARTechnic Architects. A huge structure shaped like a shell broken in two, in the middle of the Karuizawa forest. The house co-exists with nature, merging with the trees and the landscape.

Maison Lenté is Japanese-influenced, designed by the Karawitz architecture studio, from Paris. A house with Passiv House low energy certification built in 2011.

In Luleå, northern Sweden, we find a holiday complex where the guests stay in houses that hang from the trees. And in Bali, the hexagonal house made of bamboo Hideout Beehive simulates a honeycomb.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in Canada, Free Spirit Spheres propose a new form of glamping. The aim is to become a model for forest conservation, as well as an alternative for communities of people whose lifestyle is closely connected to nature.

Treehouses are the big [...]

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