Architecture
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Finding a Shou Sugi Ban Retreat in The Hamptons
Perhaps the most cleansing place in The Hamptons, Shou Sugi Ban House is a fully wellness-directed combination of food, instruction, and wabi-sabi aesthetics. Here, Debbie Kropf has fitted the low-lying structures and guest rooms with motifs pointing toward Japan in a fully contemporary Western format. Cedar slatting references both Eastern and Hampton’s architecture, careful landscaping creates a clean break from New York City, and airy, harmonious spaces offer meditation, hydrotherapy, and Noma alum Mads Refslund’s elemental plant-based dishes. About Shou Sugi Ban House Welcome to a place where sea meets sky, and earth embraces ether A space inspired by the principles of wabi-sabi, and wellness traditions that value the simple beauty and healing…
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Why Shou Sugi Ban is More than a Design Trend
During the past few years, there was a bevy of new, interesting design trends. Almost all of these trends have three things in common: biophilia, sustainability, and authenticity. These goals are what underlie some of the most popular design trends today, from reclaimed wood to net-zero energy usage. One captivating design trend having increased interest is shou sugi ban. The resulting charred wood is a deep obsidian that’s strikingly rich, and is become more common in all kinds of residential and commercial settings. As hot as it may be right now, shou sugi ban is much more than just the latest design trend. It encapsulates the understanding that traditional shou sugi ban can…
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Intersecting Shou Sugi Ban Gables create Abstract Quebec Home
Alain Carle Architecte has completed a Shou Sugi Ban home in Quebec, with a split-level organisation that creates “interior landscapes” for its owners to inhabit. Les Rorquals is a single-family retreat overlooking the Saint Lawrence seaway from Cap-à-l’Aigle. The name is a reference to Rorquals, a type of whale that is commonly spotted in this estuary. “This house has a rustic look,” said Montreal-based Alain Carle Architecte in a project description. “Its architecture is more rural than modernist, closer to the earth than to the sky.” The home is made up of two Shou Sugi Ban-clad volumes with irregular geometries that resemble typical pitched-roof houses. These overlap and intersect, creating an overall form that the architects described as…
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Black Barn is Off the Grid
Studio Bark has embedded an off-grid home, which has a tapered roof line that opens out to a glazed gable end with views over a meadow, in Suffolk, England. Named Black Barn, the two-story house is characterized by its shou sugi ban charred cedar-clad first floor, which Studio Bark designed to reference local agricultural buildings. The off-grid house, which is fully powered by solar and bio-diesel, is designed to have minimal environmental impact, with the bedrooms placed in the flint-structured ground floor. “In order to take full advantage of its setting, Black Barn was conceived as a form belonging to the wider countryside. The design is a modern yet sensitive interpretation of the black agricultural barn, a typology…
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Rural and Urban Aesthetics Collide in East London Home
Chris Dyson Architects has replaced the rear of a Victorian house in east London with a two-story extension clad in charred cedar. The refurbishment to the Kenworthy Road home in Hackney was designed to maximize the restricted space and increase natural daylight into the rear of the property. “The client wanted to create two additional bedrooms, more spacious and brightly lit living accommodation and a striking architectural addition to their Victorian terrace” Gideon Purser, project architect and partner at Chris Dyson Architects. Both structures are clad in cedar that is blackened using the Japanese technique Shou Sugi Ban. The process prolongs the life of the wood and makes it more resistant to fire, insect attack and decay. “The charring process gives the material a beautiful, dark and slightly uneven colour.…
