The Nest Treehouse Is How You Successfully Camouflage a Tiny House

The trend of downsizing and tiny living had been around for almost two decades already, but it was the international health crisis that really pushed it into the limelight. With it came a variety of alternative housing solutions, most of them mobile, but only some focused on addressing environmental concerns, as well as glamping and other means of exploring the great outdoors.

Not one of these was new then, that much goes without saying. But there's no denying that being forced to socially distance and spend this much time indoors made modern man (and woman) reconsider the appeal of the great outdoors. Spending time out in nature was all it was cracked up to be, humanity seems to have collectively discovered with the 2020 lockdowns.

Four years later, we can still feel the effects of that sudden boom in interest. Glamping, the so-called fancier version of conventional camping, remains the halfway solution for those looking to get out and enjoy nature, but without having to compromise too much of their personal comfort in the process.

Glamping has and will always be a compromise solution for the fancier types. Recent developments have seen a boost in the number of glamping offers, but they're also getting more spectacular. This birdhouse-inspired tiny house is a very good example in this sense.

This is the Buitenverblijf Nest, which apparently translates from Dutch to "county house nest." It's a hybrid vacation home of the most incredible type: part tiny home, part eco-friendly home with self-sufficient features, and part artsy project that aims to encourage a more responsible exploration of nature and social bonding.

The only thing that the Nest can't do is move, which is the only feature from tiny houses it had to ditch. That's because it was designed as a glamping unit and because its location in the Hoge Veluwe national park in The Netherlands means it has to "camouflage" itself to respect the history of the place.

Designed by architects from i29 Architects, the Nest is part of a larger project supported by a group of artists, creatives, and local government aimed at encouraging tourism in harmony with nature. Put in much simpler words, the tourist is a guest in the landscape, not there to dominate it. Hence the "camouflage" theme of the Nest.

The Nest is inspired by birdhouses and treehouses, and that's immediately noticeable in its shape and the fact that it sits on a steel platform 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) above the forest floor. Access to it is possible only by means of a winding steel staircase. The Nest isn't just inspired by birdhouses but can also function like one: birds, tree climbers, and insects can seek shelter behind the cladding and under the raised floor.

The home itself is a three-level staggered structure offering 55 square meters (592 square feet) of living space, with each level designed for certain activities at given moments of the day. The ground floor is for daytime activities, so it holds the open-plan kitchen and a lounge area that spills onto the oversize terrace – the perfect spot to take in the incredible views. Since the Nest was designed from the get-go as a vacation home, the kitchen is what you'd call minimalist, but it's still good enough to allow putting together a couple of meals a day.

The mezzanine level is reserved for the bathroom. This is a full bath with a full-size walk-in shower cabin, a toilet, a sink with vanity, and a heated towel rack. The bathroom is a perfect example of the difference between downsizing in a tiny home and glamping in one: whereas the former gets a bathroom that only covers the basic necessities and does away with everything else deemed unnecessary, glamping is all about comfort and space.

Speaking of comfort, the bedroom loft in the Nest is the strangest spin on comfort you're likely to see this week. It's a full-size room that doesn't offer standing height, taken up by a 4-person bed. The idea is that, like in a birdhouse, the entire family comes together at night. So, the Nest offers a bedroom where the parents and two children (or three younger ones) can cuddle together in the same 4-meter (13-foot) wide bed.

Built "with respect for nature," the Nest uses "high-quality materials that have little or no impact on human, animal and environmental health," according to the designers. All appliances are electric and run off solar energy, thanks to roof-mounted solar cells. No word on water and sewage, but it's probably safe to assume that the Nest isn't fully off-grid. Then again, every bit toward sustainability counts, right?

And if we're to hear about glamping with an eco-friendly twist, Buitenverblijf Nest is a good – and good-looking – place to start.