Redwood Ripple

Redwood Ripple is a treehouse by O2 Treehouse, 35 ft up in the Lagunita redwoods in Ross, CA. AMAXiMAL built four tools for it: a walkable flythrough inside a LiDAR scan of the grove, the adaptive facade system that re-cuts every contour panel to the design surface, the construction sequence, and the plywood production plan for the flutes, bridge and stair.

Link: amaximal.com/treehouse

Canopy Flythrough Adaptive Facade Construction Sequence Production Process

Interactive 3DRedwood Ripple / Flythrough

Canopy Flythrough

A walkable WebGL flythrough of the Redwood Ripple treehouse by O2 Treehouse, set inside a LiDAR scan of the Lagunita redwoods. Switch between scan, structure and glow views, take the guided tour, fly freely, or line the model up against site photos.

Client: O2 Treehouse
Site: Lagunita · Ross, CA
Deck: 35 ft above grade
Views: Tour · Orbit · Fly · Photos · Slice · Build

Open the interactive view Case study

ParametricRedwood Ripple / Adapt

Adaptive Facade

Adapt shows the hull as a parametric system, not a fixed model. Every facade member is generated from one design surface (form.stp). Soft-move a control point and the 20 cm contour panels are re-cut to follow the new surface, while the deck stays level and its outline follows the wall. Release the move and the facade returns: the same definition fits any surface.

Client: O2 Treehouse
Driver: Hull design surface · form.stp
Members: 322 facade panels, re-fit live
Rules: Panels re-cut to the surface · level deck
Edits: Soft moves, 3.4 m and 3.0 m falloff

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Build SimRedwood Ripple / Build Sequence

Construction Sequence

The treehouse assembles piece by piece inside the scanned grove, stage by stage. Layer sliders fade the build, trees, LiDAR and treehouse independently, and the playback can be recorded straight to video.

Client: O2 Treehouse
Site: Lagunita · Ross, CA
Mode: Staged assembly playback
Layers: Build · Trees · LiDAR · Treehouse
Output: Orbit viewer + video record

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FabricationRedwood Ripple · Plywood production

Production Process

The production plan for the Redwood Ripple plywood: the upper facade flutes, the lower flutes, the bridge and the top of the stair, 183 members in all. Each member is two layers of 3/4 in plywood (one where the model is 3/4 in). The flutes are cut on the deck lines, right under the lower decking and at the underside of the 2nd-floor decking, and every back-layer seam sits 2 in past the front one for a 2 in lap. Flute parts are cut 8 ft vertical with no rotation, 4 ft wide from the facade edge, or 8 ft horizontal where a part lies that way and fits better. Every flute contour has one colour from the spiral-stair gradient, plum through red and orange to gold across the structure, the same on its upper, middle and lower parts, with the back layer a deeper shade; the flat parts are nested colour by colour, so the sheets run in order through the gradient, plum to gold. All 887 parts are labeled by member, layer and position, on 314 sheets of 4x8 with a 1/2 in tool gap.

Client: O2 Treehouse · Redwood Ripple
Members: 183 · facade 59, lower 50, bridge 11, stair top 63
Build-up: 2 x 3/4 in plywood
Seams: At the deck lines · 2 in lap
Flute parts: 8 ft vertical (or horizontal where it fits better), no rotation
Parts: 887 · labeled member-layer-number
Nest: 314 sheets 4x8 · grouped by colour, in gradient order
Model: Rhino · inches

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