Treehouses offer a unique experience that lets you feel like you’re one with nature, nestled up in the canopy within a safe and comfortable structure. Building directly onto a tree is usually the point, and perhaps the defining feature. But even if you don’t have a proper tree to provide strong support, you can still mimic the feeling of a treehouse by building a self-supporting “treeless treehouse” structure of the appropriate height and scale — one that brings you to eye level with the surrounding boughs and branches.

In London, a family with young children did just that. Lacking any mature trees of their own, they were saddened by the loss of a neighbor’s ailing tree, which provided shade and a sense of a natural environment to their urban backyard. They turned to architecture firm De Matos Ryan to build a play structure that evoked the wonder of a treehouse. Completed in 2021, the “Penfold” project is an unusual take on playhouses that could be mimicked in other treeless environments.
“All children have an unencumbered view of the world, who, given the opportunity to express themselves, can act as a catalyst to highly innovative and imaginative concepts,” say the architects. “Together we developed ideas around a den which was inaccessible to adults but had a crow’s nest, referencing their favorite cartoon Danger Mouse, in which the reluctant sidekick, Penfold, is a timid, bespectacled hamster.&rdq...