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00:00From the hills of Skynowicz, Birgit, one can hear the sound of rolling trains from Stockholm's central station,
00:16mingling with the muffled roar of the city late into the night.
00:21You will find us in the restaurant car or in our service cabin in part of the night.
00:30The journey to Swedish Lapland lasts all night and part of the morning, about 12 hours to reach Bodø, very close to the Arctic Circle.
00:41You will then have to go deep into the forest to reach this childhood dream.
00:46The tree houses of the Tree Hotel, nestled in the top of the trees.
01:00The Tree Hotel, nestled in the top of the tree.
01:10The tree houses of the tree.
01:14The tree houses of the tree.
01:18This is where the adventure began for Kent and his wife Britta, when 20 years ago they
01:45saved this building and its surrounding forest from logging, to open their first guesthouse.
01:52And then the treehouse concept was born, and with it the influx of visitors from all over
01:58the world.
01:59So, to begin with, we can look at a map of the area, so this is Harads and currently
02:05we are at the guesthouse called Tree Hotel, and the tree rooms are located up in the forest,
02:11so it's a walk of about five or six hundred meters to get there.
02:15And of course this is something that we don't do with the car, we go there and walk.
02:19No, you walk there.
02:20Yes, nice.
02:21And you can park here.
02:22And up to the left, you may see the bird's nest, a little camouflaged, and past that is your
02:28room, which is the dragonfly, and neighbors on the other side is blue cone, mirror cube,
02:38UFO, and then at last the seventh room.
02:42So you can get from the bottom to the top, either by a ladder on the inside, or on the
02:48outside you have these stairs.
02:49Why not a refreshing walk outside?
02:51Why not?
02:52I think the city people can understand the nature to be just in the nature, and for them it must
03:21be a really change in the lifestyle, and the nature, and the experience here, because
03:25you are in the forest, far out from everything.
03:31I think some of them are a little bit scared, also, when they walk up here in the forest, what
03:36happened around here.
03:37It's some animal attack me, or, but after a day or two they are quite.
03:44The tree houses germination began in 2010.
04:08The first to bloom in the treetops was the mirror cube.
04:12Designed by two architects from Stockholm, it floats like a mirage in the middle of the
04:17forest.
04:18In the space of a year, three other cabins appeared, each unique.
04:23The bird's nest is completely integrated into the surrounding foliage.
04:27The cabin, an elegant futuristic design, and the UFO, that hovers over the ground thanks
04:34to its mobile fixtures to the surrounding trees.
04:39Over the years, three more cabins were built.
04:41The most recent is a 100-meter-squared apartment called the Seventh Room, where everything is
04:47luxurious, calm, and serene.
04:53Many people can be connected to the idea to stay high up in the tree.
05:00When I was a boy and grew up, we have tree houses, so we build them by woods, and fighting
05:06between the groups.
05:08So I understand the tree houses is something you are high up and look out, and you have a
05:14feeling of freedom, nobody can touch you, nobody can contact you up there.
05:26From the beginning it was a family company, me, my wife, Sofia, and another girl, we worked
05:31together.
05:32It was a family company.
05:34The first four years was really tough, but both me and my wife was around 50, so we spent
05:41a lot of time from the beginning, until we had the resources and money to rent and hire
05:47people to work for us, so we understand anything here.
05:54It can even take over from me some parts of that, so that's a good feeling to have her
05:58around.
05:59Okay.
06:00I think I spend more time outside than I do inside.
06:14I can breathe better outside, not inside of walls, because the thought isn't free and
06:23the spirit isn't free inside when it's boxed in, I think.
06:29I find belief, I find spirituality, I find my own values in nature.
06:37And I have a father that loves the nature, and been traveling to nature, and all aspects
06:42of nature.
06:43And I've been like following him a lot around in nature, so learning.
06:50I think we're going to break down the stairs down completely.
06:57I think we're going to break down the stairs down completely.
07:00It's super-halking, and no one has time to halka or grusa several times a day.
07:05Today has he grusa now, what?
07:07Yes, but it has already fallen down.
07:09It was super-halking when we went up.
07:11Okay.
07:12Good luck.
07:13Good luck.
07:14Yes, thanks.
07:15I didn't have a work, my mom said, but you can come and work with us.
07:42And I came and work with them for a while, 12 years later we're now.
07:48And I started working with, yeah, mainly helping around here.
07:52But then I, we were standing in the kitchen one evening, me, my mom, and dad, and another
07:57one called Mia, and the phone was ringing.
08:00And someone said, can I speak to the marketing director of Triotel?
08:04And my mom, she just, do you want to speak to the marketing director?
08:09That must be you.
08:10You're the best at English today.
08:13And then I worked a couple of months, just eight hours per day, answering emails, sending
08:17photos to magazines.
08:20So that's where it started.
08:21But then, of course, worked with everything around here.
08:26The logistics of a hotel where the rooms are perched 40 meters away, sometimes only accessible
08:33by ladders, is impressive.
08:37The staff only has a few hours to carefully prepare the seven cabins in the trees and the
08:42six rooms of the guest house.
08:44I speak to my family in Colombia, my family lives in Bogotá, which is the capital.
08:53To my parents, I've shown them photos of the rooms and the trees.
08:58It's incredible because they know that I work in a place that is very close to people on Instagram
09:06and the hotels, and they take photos and everything.
09:08So, when I tell you the experience of the rooms of Beards, of Mirror Group, it's very cool.
09:18They're so excited.
09:19And in future, future, future, when I work more, I'm going to pay for them to pay for them.
09:24A vacaciones.
09:26The staff are very human, they made their house become a hotel, and all the people who come
09:32are like if they come to the house of them, it's them, it's the family.
09:38It's interesting to come to a room where it's a disaster, because the people slept,
09:45they enjoyed it, and then you go and everything stays in calm, organized and clean.
09:50So, I like my work for that.
10:08Kent's first passion is fishing in extreme environments.
10:34Kent's first passion is fishing in extreme environments.
10:38He continues to organize expeditions to the most remote places on the planet, and also
10:43shares his know-how on the neighboring lakes and rivers with the guests of the Tree Hotel.
10:51Two British tourist agents have come to test the experience to include it in their travel
10:56programs.
10:57So, the next step is a rod like this.
11:02It's so tiny.
11:03Yeah.
11:04You can see it.
11:05Unlock it.
11:06So I can...
11:07Yeah, so you can't work.
11:08Unlock it.
11:09Yeah.
11:10Unlock it.
11:11Okay.
11:12We can take one more.
11:13See if they are hungry, they get one extra.
11:18And the next step is to let it go down to the bottom.
11:27And then if you feel a nibbling, something, then you take it up the whole line like this.
11:34Okay.
11:35You just grab the line.
11:36Grab the line, yeah.
11:38Up, up, up, up, up, up, fish.
11:54Oh, amazing.
11:55I'm sorry, I took it.
11:57That was easy.
11:59Yeah.
12:00It's your fish.
12:02Oh, thank you.
12:04That's the perch.
12:06Okay.
12:07Yeah.
12:08See it?
12:09Yeah.
12:10Oh, he put it in there.
12:11Deep, deep, deep there.
12:17People really enjoy this activity.
12:19Yeah, for a short hour or two.
12:21Yeah.
12:22And then start the freezing.
12:23Yeah.
12:24It's exciting, especially when you have a family.
12:26Oh, yeah.
12:27With the children, they catch something and the parents are happy.
12:29Oh, absolutely.
12:30Yeah, really good fun for kids.
12:31Yeah.
12:32And it's depending on the weather also.
12:35If it's extremely cold, it can be tough.
12:37Yeah.
12:38I do a lot of fishing and we have also, we have winter fishing, we have the summer fishing
12:44and we have salmon fishing and we have different kinds of fishing so guests can book here.
12:48Oh yeah, the summer fishing is supposed to be quite good.
12:49Yeah.
12:50Summer fishing also, yeah.
12:51Yeah.
12:52Yeah.
12:53So, and I am, I'm a fisherman.
12:56Before you're a hotelier fisherman.
12:59Yeah.
13:00Yeah.
13:01I have my own travel company for fishing tours all around the world.
13:03Oh, wow.
13:04That's my hobby and passion.
13:05Oh, so you go all around the world and you go fishing as well?
13:08Yeah.
13:09That's my, the story behind the three hotels is also connected to a fishing.
13:13Okay.
13:14Because me and my wife decided to do three houses.
13:18But we didn't know at that time how to create a room.
13:21So then I went to Russia and have a group with me, a Swedish group for a fishing tour.
13:26And three of them was top architect from Stockholm.
13:29And they was my fishing friends.
13:31So when we was in Russia, I asked them, are you interested to help us to design three houses?
13:36So that's the connection to the fishing.
13:41No, it should be okay.
13:45If you spend a lot of time in the nature, you can see what happened and you get interested.
13:50I mean, to keep everything sustainable and so and so.
13:54And then the three hotels was built on that idea to keep it really sustainable.
13:59Don't destroy the surroundings and the nature.
14:03Be a part of it.
14:17Done.
14:18So I think that's the best part, when someone has actually caught their own fish.
14:28And then they're going to eat in the evening.
14:31And then they come in with the fish and like, oh, hey, can you do this for me?
14:37And that's really fun, actually.
14:39That's really fun.
14:40That's really fun.
14:41That's really fun.
14:42That's really fun.
14:43That's really fun.
14:44I grew up in a garden with my family, my mother, my father and my sister.
15:04It's just outside of a sea, in the woods.
15:08I've always loved to go out in the forest and fishing.
15:14It's the most harmonious thing.
15:17To be able to go out in the forest and go out in the forest.
15:25My mother and my mother have been the other champions in the forest.
15:30I think it's what made me so much interested in in the forest.
15:35To be able to make my own rights and make my own food with things like that.
15:49Okay, shall we behave us?
15:51Okay, we'll kick off.
15:54Thank you again.
15:56It's amazing.
15:58You have some reindeer stew with some raw lemon berries and some almond potato puree.
16:06It looks amazing.
16:07Perfect, thank you.
16:10Okay, great.
16:11We are hungry now.
16:12Thank you very much.
16:30Goodbye, Jay.
16:32Okay.
16:33Okay.
16:42Vic organizes sleigh rides for visitors, besides training his dogs for long-distance expeditions in grown land.
16:49I always had a thought I should have a dog when I was growing up.
16:55And then I never thought really I should have this number of dogs, of course, and working with it on this way.
17:00It was a kind of dream.
17:02And then when I was learning more about the sled dogs and so on and I saw how much more I could do with it.
17:10So I was like changing a bit from only doing tours with guests till doing longer distance you can cover and so on.
17:19It's of course a lot of work around it and you need to put your own comfort very much in the back.
17:25The Tree Hotel offers many activities around nature, such as an Arctic version of the Uber Eats concept,
17:40a dinner in the middle of a frozen lake.
17:43And of course, one of the highlights that fascinates visitors, the magical Northern Lights.
17:49Welcome to the guided tour tonight.
17:52We're making Northern Lights tour and my name is Kent and I have Robert, a professional guide with me.
17:57And we're going to take you to a place, about 10 minutes drive with a snowmobile,
18:01and we have a tent there and we have a place to sit and check in the Northern Lights.
18:06So I hope it looks good tonight, very good.
18:10Where does it come from, the Northern Lights? Where does it come from?
18:14From the beginning it's eruption from the sun, the storms from the sun,
18:18and when particles hit the atmosphere it creates this light.
18:22And it's mostly up in the north part, I mean, you can see it up higher north.
18:26And it's mostly up here for it.
18:34If you look at the night time, the sun will be seated, and you can see it up here.
18:38And the turn, on the light, it's actually up here.
18:40If you look at the light and the sun will be up here.
18:42You can move to the sun, but the sun will be up here.
18:44And when your heart will do that.
19:16Robert is, above all, a nature lover.
19:38Son of an authentic trapper, he spent his first night in a tent in winter at the age of two.
19:46He also develops snowmobiles safaris for the Tree Hotel, for tourists in search of wildlife.
19:52For me, the nature is extremely important.
20:04It's always the same feeling.
20:06It's a joy.
20:09It's a little bit hard to explain, actually.
20:11It's my life.
20:12If I can't imagine something else, it would be impossible for me.
20:24If you just look at Swedish Lapland as an area, it's bigger than the country Holland.
20:30To find animals, you have to learn a lot about them.
20:34You have to learn how they live, what they eat.
20:40Wow, that's a beautiful animal.
20:43It looks like it's a very big one, also.
20:46We see moose here.
20:47It's a female.
20:48She's looking for food.
20:50It's taking it very nice and easy.
20:56She feels very safe.
20:57I've been guiding for 21 years, and Tree Hotel has now been open for 11 years.
21:13And Kent & Britta, the founders and the owners, they want to see this village to extend and to grow,
21:21and so more and more people can have more and more jobs, also.
21:25They're visionaries.
21:27They can see things that other people don't.
21:32And if you're an entrepreneur and a visionary, I think that's extremely important.
21:35Then you can take everything to the next level, and that's what they have done.
21:40See you on our side.
21:42Where is it going?
21:43The first room is here.
21:44Wow, Angel.
21:47Come on, Frank.
21:48Wow.
21:49So warm.
21:49Welcome to the Big Biosphere.
21:52Wow, Angel.
21:55For the first time, after two years of development on virtual reality software,
22:00the architects of the Danish firm Big discover their creations suspended in the trees.
22:07It will be higher here.
22:09It's called the Biosphere for something.
22:10It's like a sphere where all the bio lives together.
22:14Not the humans, but also the nature and the birds.
22:16Birds, bees, bats, and so on.
22:20All the creatures that fly around us.
22:25It's going to be exciting to see all the birds imagine coming, going, and fish.
22:29Right now it's amazing, but it's going to be even more, with all this life coming to you, in a way, once you are having a shower.
22:38Yeah, you have the animal reindeers and some moose moving around here, and birds, and squirrels in the nature.
22:46I think that's good to have.
22:48This eighth cabin is the culmination of the concept of life in the middle of the forest,
22:53and proposes to integrate the biosphere, in particular the birds, on the exterior surfaces of the cabin.
23:00We are discussing about how to connect nature, animals, birds, to the people, with the help of design.
23:17And in my age, we will see if I will be the person who will do the next one, or maybe someone will take over and find a new way.
23:27.
23:44.
23:52.
23:54.
23:56What did you remember best when we built the first group?
24:03When it came with a mirror cue on the tractor, with a boom-ex tractor.
24:09The little blue tractor?
24:11Yes, it was a fun thing. We drove down the whole road.
24:16I thought you were so nervous when it was set up.
24:20It was a big picture in the news.
24:23Yes, exactly. We had never done it before, so it was hard to know.
24:28It was one of the easiest ones to set up.
24:39My main focus is trees.
24:42150 trees, we can still tell so much about nature's value to the world.
24:51In these 150 trees by doing this, by connecting the architecture with the nature.
24:59For us, for me and my wife, that we are most proud of all this project.
25:04That's not maybe to build a tree house.
25:06It's more that we have created something for the village.
25:09That we have done something for the community where we live also.
25:13It is not easy to leave the trees of Lapland back to civilization, but one can be reassured by the strong will of Kent, Britta and Sophia to preserve this magical place and its surrounding nature.
25:31The
25:49Transcription by CastingWords
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