A tiny house in the trees inspired by a 16th century architect.

This is a secret earthbound ship sailing through a woodland near Sarlat in the Dordogne, France. It was half a year's dedicated work by the wonderfully skilled team of Yogan, Menthé and Rémix. The building used 15m3 (500 cu ft.) of oak, chestnut, douglas fir, cedar and poplar. It is 12m (39ft) long and 3.5m (11ft) wide with a spacious curved roof inspired by the 16th century architect Philibert de l'Orme.

Yogan, Menthé and Rémix are a journeyman collective who work all over the world. When not at work they live in a forest village of six cabins in the Dordogne, France. They use ancient carpentry techniques and tools to create their beautiful buildings. You can see more pictures on Yogan's and Menthé's blogs. This wonderful and unique building cost around 45,000 Euro ($60,000, £37,000).

Yogan has a lot of woodworking experience under his belt. As well as an internship in the restoration of antique furniture Yogan studied Applied Building Ecology using natural materials such as straw, cordwood, greenwood and hemp. Yogan has also studied vernacular timber construction in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Argentina.

In the three pictures below you can see the design of the roof. When Philibert de l'Orme, who started his career as a builder, designed this type of roof it had many advantages over the architecture of the time. It removed the vertical columns and horizontal tie beams creating more space. The lighter structure reduced the load on the walls. The dome space was a significant increase the volume, a gain of about 50% compared to a conventional triangular profile. The cost was lower because it used about 60% less wood and because the design used less wood his buildings were less vulnerable to fire.