Architecture student heading to Italy to build his winning treehouse design.
Victoria Architecture student Jacob Dench has won an international treehouse design competition and is heading to Italy at the end of August to build it.
Victoria Architecture student Jacob Dench has won an international treehouse design competition and is heading to Italy at the end of August to build it.
Jacob and his team mates, Dario Sanchez and Chris Pugsley, entered the competition to design an iconic treehouse which will house an artist for a month during the Terni International Performing Arts Festival.
Their winning design, Octavia Treehouse, is a 2.4 metre sphere which floats in the centre of the tree with wings either side. The wings house both a sleeping space and a display area, they are made up of tensioned ropes which anchor the sphere in place, similar to a spider web.
Jacob has been working on structures like this for his thesis - tensile, lightweight architecture which has minimal contact with the ground.
Once built, the treehouse will undergo rigorous safety testing before the artist moves in.
Jacob says “In the display wing the artist can do whatever they choose – display their art or simply hang their clothes to dry.”
Four other designs were also chosen to be built, three Italian and one Spanish.
Jacobs’s supervisor is Reader Daniel Brown.
See Jacob's design Octavia Treehouse
Jacob has a kickstarter page where you can help fund his trip: