Дом Two.Fold в Миннесоте: японский обожженный кедр Nakamoto Forestry превращает ограничения ландшафта в архитектурный характер

Nakamoto Forestry is the world’s largest manufacturer of yakisugi. They directly control the entire manufacturing process, upholding their commitment to traditional craftsmanship and sustainable harvesting practices. Two Black Gables in Minnesota Marshland Turn Constraint into Character Two elongated gables, clad almost entirely in charred wood siding, stretch low across a five-acre site west of Minneapolis. At the entrance, that dark exterior gives way: blond cedar wraps a deep cantilevered cutout, framing floor-to-ceiling glass and a front door painted an unexpected shade of pink. The apparent simplicity belies a project shaped by a complicated set of demands. Designed by Imprint Architecture and Design for a young family, Two.Fold had to reconcile the clients' taste for modern Nordic architecture with the requirements of Upland Farms, an equestrian community whose homeowners association called for gabled roofs and a prominent chimney. Add a sloping site with limited buildable area, a budget that rewarded restraint, and a desire to experience the landscape in nearly every direction, and the architects had plenty to negotiate. The resulting pair of long gables sits as offset rectangles, each essentially mirroring the other. Their stagger opens windows on three sides of the main gathering spaces and carves out a naturally shaded courtyard between them. Inside, the exterior geometry continues through the great room and primary suite, accentuated by black wood trusses. Photo courtesy of Round Three Photography The land does some of the work, too. Imprint placed the main entrance and garage at the highest elevation within the buildable area, where the 4,821-square-foot house appears largely single-story. But the grade falls away quickly, revealing a lower level and lifting the living room and primary bedroom above portions of the landscape. Large west-facing bedroom windows take advantage of the slope below, while a two-story expanse of north-facing glass at the stair landing pulls daylight deep into the house and opens directly to a patio. The effect is less about one grand view than a succession of them. "Sitting in the living room, you can experience nearly every side of the property," says Jeremy Imhoff, AIA, Directing Design Principal at Imprint. "There are expansive views toward the forest and marsh, but also smaller, framed moments. As you move through the house, your relationship to the landscape keeps changing." From the main living space, the forest lies to the southwest, and a deck faces the wetland marsh to the northeast. Looking back toward the entry, the eye travels beneath the long vaulted ceiling toward the pink front door and driveway beyond. Some windows offer broad panoramas; others crop the landscape into tighter compositions. Doors open directly to grade in some places and onto elevated decks in others, so the experience of the site shifts room to room. Photo courtesy of Round Three Photography For all that spatial variety, the architecture is deliberately economical. Mindful of the budget, Imprint reduced the footprint to the two rectangular gables. The cantilever marking the entrance was engineered with wood trusses, avoiding structural steel. The exterior palette was kept tight. Within that limited palette, the siding does much of the visual work. The architects and builder considered several charred wood options before settling on Suyaki®, a yakisugi produced by Nakamoto Forestry. Yakisugi—better known in the West as shou sugi ban—is a Japanese material made of sugi, or Japanese cedar, that is intensely heat treated. With Suyaki, the char is left unbrushed, preserving the texture created by the flame. At Two.Fold, a black-pigmented tung oil gives that surface a more consistent tone and helps stabilize the soot layer. Paired with a black asphalt roof and matching downspouts, the result is a nearly monochromatic composition whose surface is anything but uniform, the yakisugi catching light across its ridges and fissures and shifting in character throughout the day. Photo courtesy of Round Three Photography The dark envelope provides a foil for the homeowners' more exuberant sensibility, announced at the pink entry door and carried through patterned tile, colorful cabinetry, custom wallpaper in the children's rooms, and furnishings the clients selected themselves. “The homeowners’ use of color is delightful and was driven by their personalities and design aesthetic,” says Sara Imhoff, AIA, Directing Design Principal at Imprint. There were practical reasons for the choice as well. Rather than relying on chemical or synthetic modification for its durability, yakisugi uses heat to alter the wood by breaking down its hemicellulose, improving resistance to rot and insects and reducing the maintenance demands associated with many conventional wood exteriors. Weathering is treated as part of the material's character rather than a sign that a finish cycle has ended. Oiled products can be re-oiled if owners want to hold the original color, but the siding can equally be left to develop a patina. Photo courtesy of Round Three Photography That distinction matters in Minnesota’s dramatic seasonal swings, but it also shifts the measure of the facade’s performance beyond the moment of completion: how the material weathers, changes, and endures becomes part of the architecture itself. The environmental case carried weight too. Nakamoto Forestry's cedar is sourced from sustainably managed Japanese forests, and the company holds Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) chain-of-custody certification, with Environmental Product Declarations available for its yakisugi lines. "We were inspired by their ethical forestry practices and environmental awareness," says Jeremy. "Their long-lasting wood has environmental and climate declarations, and they take into consideration the local economy from which their wood is sourced." For now, the Suyaki gives Two.Fold a dark, almost monolithic presence against the surrounding woods, its charred surface lending texture to the simplicity of the paired gables. That appearance will not remain static. Left to weather, the wood will change with exposure and time—another layer of variation in a house shaped by subtle shifts in form, elevation, view, and material. For more information, visit www.nakamotoforestry.com. Photo courtesy of Round Three Photography William Beleck, President of Nakamoto Forestry North America William Beleck launched Nakamoto Forestry North America in 2016 in Portland, Oregon, together with Nakamoto Zourin, the largest yakisugi “shou sugi ban” mill in Japan. Looking for a reprint of this article? From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!