Courtesy Inredningsgruppen/Tree hotel
Another Swedish treehouse design and a part of the Harads Tree Hotel, this lightweight structure is dubbed the UFO Tree Hotel for obvious reasons.
Courtesy Hapuku Lodge
With glass windows and more of a traditional structure, some might argue that the five Hapuku Lodge buildings in New Zealand doesn't qualify. However, the structures, made from native wood and copper shingles, sit firmly on top of trees.
Courtesy Akihisa Masuda
Framed by an abundance of cherry blossoms, the Teahouse Tetsu by Terunobu Fukimori looks as though it's from a different world. Of the small house, the designer says: "It looks as though it were a house for a midget from a fairy tale."
Courtesy Åke Eson Lindman
Erected deep inside a forest in northern Sweden, the Mirrorcube Tree hotel is clad in mirrored glass. With a 360-degree view, it was designed by Tham & Videgård for the nearby Brittas Pensionat hotel.
Courtesy Lucy Gauntlett
The Yellow Tree House Restaurant takes over 474 square feet and wraps around a 131-foot-high redwood tree in Warkworth, New Zealand. The idea, thought up by Peter Eising, was to find all the products and services required through Yellow Pages listings.
Courtesy Pete Nelson
Richard Brunelli is Brazil's leading builder of treehouses, and built this with just one intern using mahogany and teak.
Courtesy Jesse Colin Jackson
Supported by three pilotis and built around a pine tree, this house was designed for children by Nicko Bjorn Elliot in Toronto. There is also a pole to slide down should you want to make a quick and stealthy getaway.
Courtesy Pete Nelson
The Bialsky Tree House, as it's designer Pete Nelson says, is less of a tree house and "more of a stilt house." Made with artist Michael Ince the house is built from reclaimed wood, and was originally built for the client's children.
Courtesy Taschen
"Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air" by Philip Jodido, published by Taschen, is out now. (Illustration by Patrick Hruby.)
CNN  — 

Treehouses come in many shapes, whether that’s a playhouse for children, a retreat for adults, or an amusement park for Italians in the early 1500s.

Acclaimed architectural writer Philip Jodido introduces a wealth of houses-in-the-trees from across the globe – designed by famed architects or local craftsmen – in a neat, new publication: “Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air.”

“The tree houses in this book represent a history of buildings that extends back even beyond recorded history,” Jodido writes.

Indeed, it is a concept that has its roots firmly in the earth, with early examples dating back to the first century. Fast forward a few thousand years, and there are even drawings amongst these pages for a concept of an aerial village, designed by industrial designer Benoît Fray, to be made in the Alps.

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Of the 50 designs featured, there are no two the same. It would seem that, if you are thinking of building your own tree house, the sky really is the limit.

“Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air” by Philip Jodido, published by Taschen, is out now.