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Craftsman Creates Stylish Exteriors with Shou Sugi Ban
An increasing number of Western architects and designers these days create arresting exteriors using a process known as shou sugi ban, a centuries-old Japanese technique for preserving and finishing wood by charring it with fire. The treatment — which leaves behind a dense, carbonized layer of blackness — has been around since at least the 18th century, though earlier examples exist. It began as a practical process used mostly for fencing and the facades of rural homes and storehouses, which held valuables, like rice, that families hoped to protect from blazes. Interestingly, while it is no longer as popular as it once was in Japan, it’s found new life in the…
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Architectural Digest on Shou Sugi Ban Benefits
Use Shou Sugi Ban to Waterproof Wood Furniture Shou sugi ban (焼杉板) is the art of preserving and finishing wood using fire. While shou sugi ban (焼杉板) originated in Japan in the 18th century primarily as way to treat cedar siding to make it weatherproof, the technique—which involves charring a wood surface to render it a deep charcoal-black—has caught on recently as a treatment for contemporary exteriors and indoor furnishings alike. You can even find variations elevated to fine art, as in the work of the artist Maarten Baas. The gravitas imparted by the process and finished result (also called yakisugi) are undeniable, a blackening of the wood that reveals clean, distinct lines and an inherent…
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Shou Sugi Ban Retreat in Texas Hill Country
Michael Hsu Office of Architecture has used shou sugi ban charred wood, local stone and large stretches of glass to form this country home for an Austin, TX family. The Llano Retreat is situated along the Llano River in central Texas, about 75 miles northwest of the city. For years, the property had served as a primitive campsite for fly-fishing outings and weekend getaways. The family camped under a pole-structure with a metal roof. When the clients ultimately decided to build a more permanent retreat, they charged Austin-based Michael Hsu Office of Architecture with creating a building that embraced the natural terrain. “After years of getting to know the ranch land, the family chose a site…
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NY Times on Shou Sugi Ban: Black Magic
The Latest Design Trend: Black and Burned Wood… An ancient Japanese technique protects cedar by charring it a witchy charcoal. It’s having a renaissance in the West (for less practical reasons). On the windswept southern side of Martha’s Vineyard, at the end of a rural road that emerges from a dark copse of oak trees, sit two austere, inky-black farmhouse-style buildings — a studio and a private residence — that compose Chilmark House. Designed by the New Haven, Conn., firm Gray Organschi Architecture with Aaron Schiller, founder of the New York City-based Schiller Projects, the home, which was built for Schiller’s family, is clad in approximately 80 charred louvers he torched entirely by…
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Making a DIY Shou Sugi Ban Cedar Fence
Feeling industrious this weekend? Here is a great DIY video tutorial on making your own Shou Sugi Ban cedar fence. Here we go!
