In 2000, Hawaii-based eco-resort architect David Greenberg found himself with commissions to design more than one hundred tree houses in resort locations in Hawaii, China, Vietnam, and Fiji. Unable to handle this workload on his own, Greenberg needed to find help, and he had a sudden inspiration: He would hold an international competition and select the best, most innovative designs he saw. He received hundreds of entries from nearly 500 architects around the world. This book contains the 100 top designs, chosen by a panel of judges, which included architects, designers, the president of the World Tree house Organization, and even a Zen Buddhist monk. The competition guidelines were stringent for the design, for example they had to be ecofriendly and for only one type of tree and built to a certain size. Each design includes plans, computer-generated imagery, and in many cases scale models of the conceived design, plus an essay by the architects.