Trees of Life - NYTimes.com Beyond its childhood associations and escapist lure, the treehouse stands as one of the earliest and most deceptively simple architectural dwellings. Everyone from the ancient Egyptians to Caligula (who once held a banquet atop a tree) to the modern-day designer Roderick Wolgamott Romero (who has built arboreal structures for Sting, Donna Karan and Julianne Moore) has paid homage to these castles in the sky. The latest tribute comes from the Harvard graduate and Taschen Architecture Now! series author Philip Jodidio, whose book "Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air" (Taschen, $70) catalogs 50 tree homes from around the world. With illustrations and cover art by the Los Angeles artist Patrick Hruby, "Tree Houses" visits such creations as a 22-square-meter house belonging to Sweden's Treehotel. Called the Blue Cone, the red-colored split-birch shingled lodging is accessible via a bridge and offers four beds, a standalone sleeping loft, bathroom and living quarters. Equally intriguing is the Honey Sphere house, designed by Dustin Feider, which was exhibited on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art before it found a permanent residence at the Beverly Hills home of the Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. The 2009 construction has 210 openings, 420 facets and a mandala print pattern pine floor. Some of the treehouses are more futuristic, like one built out of stainless steel sheets around a willow tree near the Spree River in Berlin. Jodidio says in his introduction that trees have always been "a place to dream and a place to find refuge," explaining the enduring appeal of these structures. A man in a tree could look down on daily existence like a bird in flight, a step to breaking the bounds of the ordinary, a hint of immortality.