The water rose because of beavers.

They built their dams in the wetlands west of Tallinn, flooded a former forest, and killed many of the trees. Now the trunks stand skeletal and still, rising from water that reflects the sky back at you on calm mornings.

Someone looked at this and decided it was the perfect place to build.

In 2019, an Estonian startup entrepreneur bought the Maidla Manor complex in Lääne County — a 15th-century estate that had passed through eight noble families, been nationalized after Estonian independence, and then operated as an orphanage for 62 years.

When the orphanage closed in 2012, the buildings sat without heat or maintenance for seven years.

He didn't restore it to its former grandeur. He commissioned three different Estonian architecture firms and gave each the same brief: design a tiny villa on stilts above the wetlands.

The three villas that came out of those commissions couldn't be more different from each other.

KASEKE, "Birch," is 22 square meters of thermally modified ash with a rooftop terrace and floor-to-ceiling windows. Not one birch tree was cut to build it. It won the Dezeen Awards public vote and was nominated for the EU Mies van der Rohe prize.

KÄBI, "Pine Cone," wraps itself in brownish-orange wood shake siding, has castle-like turrets, and extends an outdoor jacuzzi into the trees.

POKU, "Tussock," spreads across seven round modules with vaulted ceilings, covered in a traditional thatched reed roof. Its name comes from both the sedge grasses growing in the bog and the characters from a beloved Estonian children's book.

All three sit 500 meters from the car park, reached on wooden boardwalks across the wetlands. You walk in carrying what you need.

In the manor's old servants' house, SOO Restaurant holds a Michelin Green Star for sustainability. Five tables. Head chef Karoliina Jaakkola, originally from Finland, builds a surprise tasting menu around personal memories. She cooks Thursday through Saturday. Her predecessor, Daanius Aas, won the Michelin Young Chef Award while running the kitchen alone.

If you can't get a table, or simply don't want to leave your stilts, villa dinner runs €55 per person including wine.

Estonia has what locals call a "5th season" — the spring flooding between winter and summer, when the bog transforms entirely and the water reshapes the whole character of the landscape. Winter guests get firelight and snowshoeing. Summer guests get canoes on the Keila River. Spring guests get the water.

The owners call their staff "house fairies." The logo is derived from a ceiling pattern in the manor's main hall. The dead trees are not a problem to solve. They are, explicitly, part of the point.

Villas run €295 to €585 per night depending on the villa and season. SOO Restaurant is Thursday to Saturday; villa dinner is available any night. About 45 minutes from Tallinn by car — no taxi apps work in the area, so book a transfer or rent a car.

As a tech-obsessed young professional, I've also found myself drawn to the opposite: quiet, peaceful places like this that exist because of technology but do not exist for it. It's too easy nowadays to get lost in technology, and I love that a startup founder in Estonia noticed that and built a resort with the opposite in mind.

If you need to unplug, this might be the right place for you.

Book on Maidla's Site.