Ever wondered what it’s like to sleep out in the open, under the stars? Well, someone did and went even further in designing and realizing homes that are purpose-built for sleeping in the open air in the woods.

A room in the wood

A few years ago, the Serpentine pavilion project in Hyde Park won the Chilean architect Smiljan Radic the applause of design fans all over Europe.
But Smiljan Radic had already been designing innovative projects and prototypes long before that.
“The room” is one of these projects: the room-sized house is mainly composed of a rectangular structure whose walls are just wooden shelves coated with a transparent material.
You can either leave the shelves empty or load them with your books and memorabilia so as to make each inch of the walls your own.
The second floor is created by placing a red tent on the rectangular structure, to achieve a kind of circus atmosphere, with an intimate red-tinted feel to it.
Find a wood, move “The room” around and treat yourself to a magic night.

Under a blanket of stars in a bubble

Pierre Stephane Dumas is a French designer who has achieved the impossible: he combined his passion for aesthetics and his interest in nature and its preservation. The result is the CrystalBubble room– a room made of a special plastic-reinforced cover, wholly or partially transparent, like you are “sleeping under a blanket of stars”.

He went even further by creating the Bubble room- partly opaque and resembling a nest. And then there’s the Bubble Drop, which is totally white except for a transparent round window at the top of it and a line of tiny windows all along its perimeter. It’s the ideal place for your meditation sessions or even for an unconventional meeting.

In Italy, a night in the woods in a bubble suite can be experienced in Sicily in an organic farmhouse surrounded by greenery in the Messina countryside.
Though a little expensive (around € 8,000), you can book a BubbleRoom for just one night at a more affordable price (starting from €130 for 1 night for a double room.). The organic and zero km breakfast (seasonal fruit, Sicilian ancient grain bread, organic jams, fresh eggs, etc.) and the guided tour of the farm are included.

The green village

Waking up in the branches of a large oak, surrounded by greenery … A mirage?

Across Europe, the possibilities for sleeping in a real treehouse are countless. Made of entirely natural and eco-friendly materials, these small shelters ensure the protection of the trees and the surrounding nature.

The cost? They range from € 150 for one night for 2 people in the tree house of Bocchineri estate, in Calabria.

Cover image: Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash


Author: Cristiana Pedrali

"Loving your job is the closest you can get to happiness on earth” (Rita Levi Montalcini) and “when real people fall down in real life they get back on their feet and carry on walking” (Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City): these are my two mantras. I’m a bit like this: I go through being serious to playful to help me manage a thousand different interests and commitments, keeping a smile through it all. I work in the tourism industry and on the web and every so often I look for some breathing space through reading and travel!
More posts by Cristiana Pedrali →


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