Putting down roots: treehouse for sale for £1 million in Gloucestershire — and it doesn't even exist yet

The property is designed for maximum energy efficiency, with a section of sustainable woodland near the house providing the property’s fuel and a paddock will become part of the filtration system.
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A remarkable architect-designed treehouse in Gloucestershire is on the market for £1 million — even though it doesn’t exist yet.

A plot of land comprising seven acres of mature woodland on the edge of a conservation area close to the village of Ewen has come up for sale with planning permission in place to build a one-of-a-kind ‘treehouse'.

Building the three-bedroom house itself will cost an estimated £950,000 extra, and take up to 18 months, depending on what specifications the owners choose.

Benjamin Langridge of Savills Cirencester estimates the finished house could be worth between £2.25 million and £2.75 million.

Ewen Tree House, as the project is known, is raised on stilts, snaking above the forest floor like a curving, elevated bungalow.

CGIs of how the project will look when built show the house laid out on a right-angle with a circular room at either end — one the book-lined study, the other the master bedroom with en suite bathroom.

Each of these have glazed walls offering 360 degree views of the surrounding woodland.

The cylindrical bookend rooms are linked by a series of light-filled wood and glass rooms, some with latticed windows, others with fully glazed walls.

The whole house is both open to nature from within and blends into the forest from outside, with the stilts it rests on echoing the tree trunks of the surrounding woodland.

An open-plan kitchen-dining room sits in the central curved section of the house on a raised mezzanine bordered by a walkway through the house. The kitchen is topped by an oculus, which lets light fall into the room from above.

There is one living area leading off the study with one wall lined with wood-latticed windows and the other lined with bookshelves. Another, cosier living area is sunk into the ground, in a curve echoing the raised kitchen next to it.

There's a third, outdoor living area set directly under the master bedroom.

“Our market place in Cirencester is primarily made up of traditional Cotswold properties so to have something so different and cutting edge is really exciting,” says Langridge.

Outdoor seating: a covered outdoor living room is planned beneath the raised master bedroom

The treehouse was designed by Hawkes Architecture, who specialises in building unique homes in some of the country’s most stunning locations.

The practice specialises in Para 79 (previously known as Para 55) architecture — a planning policy within the National Planning Policy Framework which allows for new houses to be built in protected scenic areas in England and Wales, subject to certain requirements and criteria.

"Buildings can, and often do, enhance the landscape within which they are set,” says Richard Hawkes, of Hawkes Architecture.

“We've lifted the house up to blur the relationship of the property with the ground and to maintain the characteristic long eye level views through the site.”

The property is also designed for maximum energy efficiency with passive solar layout, a log and pellet biomass boiler, Tesla battery storage, low energy appliances and lighting and triple-glazing.

The use of local materials also minimise the house’s environmental impact, while a section of sustainable woodland near the house will provide the property’s fuel and a paddock will become part of the filtration system.

Ewen is two and a half hours from London by car while trains to the capital from Kemble station, just over a mile away, take 70 minutes.