Design Green Design Which Do You Prefer: Modern Clean Green or Comfy Rustic Tree Houses? By Lloyd Alter Design Editor University of Toronto Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. our editorial process Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Lloyd Alter Updated October 11, 2018 Migrated Image Share Twitter Pinterest Email Design Tiny Homes Architecture Interior Design Green Design Urban Design Poet Roy Conant endears himself to us by pitching his own eco-guest house in a treehouse, which he calls "Lothlorien", with the introduction: I viewed your 8 Tree Houses Fit For TreeHuggers and have to say this tree hugger was not impressed with the ostentatious designs and egotistical impositions on the landscape. The only connection your selections seem to have with green is how much green it took to build them. Modern vs rustic exteriors He continues: As the owner of a more rustic and not-at-all ostentatious tree house and a composer of poems, I couldn't imagine finding my muse in any of the tree houses you feature - They seem too institutionally antiseptic to nurture any of the muses and are not at all ecologically inspirational. modern vs rustic interiors There is no question that TreeHugger skews modern and minimalist. It is also not the first time that we have been accused of being "institutionally antiseptic" by readers who prefer a comfy granola aesthetic. But even a Lord of the Rings fan like myself would be more likely to find my muse in Tham and Videgard's treehouse in Sweden on the left than in Roy's Lothlorien in Oregon on the right. (more pictures at the Lothlorien website), What about you?