Titled “Treehouse Apartment”, this sustainable 100m² retrofit by Project V Architecture transforms a Sarajevo apartment—set in an Austro-Hungarian-era courtyard block—into a warm, immersive world crafted from natural materials. Designed for a young family, the home features cherry wood linings, clay-painted walls, stone worktops, linen curtains, travertine and minimalist detailing. Its most surprising element: a bespoke prefabricated children’s Tree house, made from spruce glulam.
Central to the project is the concept of groundedness, expressed through a continuous cherry veneer wall element that rises from the floor and wraps around the entire apartment at varying datum heights. As an “inhabitable skirting board”, this dynamic cherry ribbon begins as a floor border and transforms into kitchen units, benches, cupboards, or wall paneling, concealing functional and technical elements. Resembling a horizon line, this seamless wood element evokes a miniature forest, connecting the inhabitants to the ground and nature—merging utility with poetics—and creating a calming environment.
The hallway acts as a threshold, a space to pause, lined in clay paint and flush cherry cabinetry rising to a 2.1m datum above the doorways. This conceals built-in storage and integrates seating with precise geometries and detailing, that introduces the apartment’s material language and design ethos from the moment one steps inside.
