This centuries-old Japanese technique is adding a surprisingly contemporary vibe to luxury homes, inside and out
5 min
It’s the kind of edgy design trend you might have scrolled past on a social media feed: homes bearing beautifully charred facades or feature walls, a charcoal patina that seems as if it emerged from fire itself—in fact, that’s exactly how it came into being.
Shou sugi ban, also known as yakisugi, is a Japanese wood-burning method with roots that run deep. The craft emerged during Japan’s Edo period, from 1603 to 1868, as a way to clad cedar buildings to withstand temperature fluctuations between seasons and render them fire retardant and insect repellant. Aside from its practical benefits, the look has exploded in the West as a way to give homes—mostly luxury ones—a brooding, dramatic exterior that fits with an earthy minimalist aesthetic as much as texture-rich maximalist one.
The preservation technique, which can be achieved by hand or machine, involves burning wood until the surface is charred, cooling and cleaning it to remove soot and dust and finishing it with natural oils to reinforce its durability and aesthetic appeal.
Dark and charred and decidedly grained, the look of shou sugi ban is altogether distinctive.
“When you burn the clean wood, it creates a textural surface that highlights the beauty of the wood grain and colour,” said Mia Jung, director of interiors at Ike Kligerman Barkley in New York and San Francisco.
Depending on the degree of charring and finishing, the wood can produce a range of looks from deep black with pronounced grain patterns to a more subtle dark brown or grey with a smoother finish, said Jiun Ho, founder of Jiun Ho Inc., a multi-disciplinary interior and furnishings design firm in San Francisco.
Defining Detail
Unlike the purely functional role of the shou sugi ban technique of the past, today, it’s most commonly used for decorative purposes—both inside and outside the home.
“It has a modern yet earthy aesthetic,” said Stephanie Hobbs, design principal at Marmol Radziner in Los Angeles. “Clean lines and details help this naturally textured and rough material feel modern and luxurious.”
The old-world application can, ironically, have a very contemporary vibe. “The simplicity of the wood offers a beautiful and natural look that honours the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, which embraces imperfections,” said Teresa Boyd and Helena Finkelstein, co-owners and lead designers of Verona, New Jersey-based Olive Hill Design Company.
While traditionally rendered in cedar, modern variations of the art utilise different types of woods, such as Douglas fir, cypress, pine or oak, creating many diverse looks. The cost of shou sugi ban varies widely based on factors such as the type of wood used, the degree of charring and the finish applied.
“It can be more expensive than untreated wood due to the labor-intensive process,” Ho said. Typically, prices range from $15 to$20 per square foot on average.
What’s Old Is New Again
There’s no denying the technique is having a moment, and it aligns with so many other trends, such as the growing emphasis on artisan-made things as well as biophilic design, a concept that aims to connect people with nature, in part, through natural materials.
“In this age of fast everything, there is a growing respect and appreciation for traditional craftsmanship,” Kornak said. “Shou sugi ban is a great example of that—it has a rich and beautiful history, especially in architecture and design. In addition, it’s both modern and rustic, which is aesthetically intriguing.”
The matte finish and distinctive wood graining create a striking impression that is different from what people are used to seeing, Hobbs said, noting how it balances with a natural landscape.
“People love the warmth and natural qualities of wood siding, but it often comes with a large commitment to maintenance. This method of finishing ages naturally and beautifully over time and requires less maintenance than a typical wood siding application,” she said.
What makes shou sugi ban even more relevant is that it’s eco-friendly. The wood retains the carbon-dioxide absorbed during the tree’s growth, making it more durable and expanding the life of the wood, said Philip Consalvo, principal of PJCArchitecture in New York City. It also naturally protects the wood from the elements, eliminating the need for harsh chemicals.
“As darker home exteriors continue to trend, we will likely see this material becoming increasingly popular for cladding,” he said.
Fresh Ways to Play With Fire
These days, shou sugi ban, in all of its smoky glory, is showcased in a multitude of ways—as siding and fencing, decking, interior and feature walls and furniture.
Ho loves using shou sugi ban for wall cladding because “it adds a multi-dimensional texture making the interior feel rich and warm.” For a new restaurant he’s designing called Enclos, which is opening later this summer in Sonoma, California, he covered the dining room’s walls and ceiling with shou sugi ban. “This created a dark black texture that serves as a blank canvas, allowing everything in the room, including the guests and the food, to stand out,” he said.
Jeffrey Dungan, founder and creative director at Jeffrey Dungan Architects in Mountain Brook, Alabama, prefers to apply the technique inside a home for a dark and moody vibe. While Hobbs tends to add the charred wood as a finishing material to connect interior walls with exterior siding.
Siding is the most common way to showcase the Japanese technique. Consalvo used the material as siding because of its “eco-friendly nature and seamless integration with the home’s natural surroundings,” for a recently completed lake house in the Adirondacks.
“The unique appearance of shou sugi ban enhanced the modern aesthetic we desired for the house. By incorporating this traditional craftsmanship in a modern way, we aimed to honour the Japanese wood preservation technique,” he said.
However, Consalvo noted that since the charring process is unfamiliar to many builders and contractors, “proper training and understanding of the technique are essential to achieving the desired results and maintaining its integrity and benefits.”
Aside from walls and siding, Shou Sugi Ban can be used to fashion bespoke items such as furniture, light fixtures or objets d’art. Design firm Holly Hunt has used geometric figurines by Martha Sturdy called “Reflections” as well as hand-carved solid cedar bowls from A Space.
“For both of these, the ashen black finish and minimalist lines are a graceful yet robust accent for interiors,” said Jo Annah Kornak, senior vice president and executive creative director of Chicago-based Holly Hunt.
Homeowners who are curious about the look but don’t want to commit to decorating large expanses can add a small side table or console crafted with the shou sugi ban technique for a natural and minimalist addition to their décor, Boyd and Finkelstein suggested.
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
Following the successful launch of its Palais Collection, MAISON de SABRÉ has unveiled a new modular handbag system offering more than 720 styling combinations.
Automobili Lamborghini and Babolat have expanded their collaboration with five new colourways for the ultra-exclusive BL.001 racket, limited to just 50 pieces worldwide.
Two architecture lovers created a real-life version of the home in Utah. It is now on the market for $45 million.
5 min
Near the end of “North By Northwest,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller, the protagonist, Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant), follows the seductress Eve Kendall (played by Eva Marie Saint) to a sprawling Modernist house reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
Except this house is situated not over a waterfall but, absurdly, atop Mount Rushmore.
The Vandamm House, named for the movie’s villain, never existed except on a Hollywood soundstage.
But it seems so real on the screen that Christine Madrid French, an expert on the architecture of Hitchcock’s films, says people sometimes tell her: “I went to Mount Rushmore, but I forgot to visit the house.”
John Boccardo, who grew up in Los Gatos, Calif., was 11 when the film came out. He saw it nearly a dozen times at the Studio Theatre in San Jose.
He was especially taken with the Vandamm House, which seemed completely real to him.
“I promised myself I would visit it one day,” says Boccardo. In the meantime, he drew surprisingly realistic renderings of it, from memory, while still in grade school. undefined
Years later, as an architecture student at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in downtown Los Angeles, he learned that the house didn’t exist.
A couple of rooms and two small sections of its exterior had been built on MGM’s Culver City lot under the supervision of production designer Robert Boyle.
For scenes in which the house was in the background, Hitchcock relied on paintings of the imaginary building by special-effects artist Matthew Yuricich.
The paintings, known as mattes in Hollywood, weren’t terribly realistic, but with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint moving across the screen, moviegoers didn’t notice.
“It may be the most famous Modernist house that never existed,” says French, an architecture and film historian and the author of “The Architecture of Suspense: The Built World in the Films of Alfred Hitchcock.”
Boccardo went on to become a successful architect who worked in both northern and southern California.
Then, while semi-retired and living in Utah, he decided it was time to build the Vandamm House. His partner, Derek Esplin, threw himself into the project, working out details of everything from financing to furnishing. Says Esplin, a film producer, “I took it on as my life’s work.”
Boccardo, 78, Esplin, 59, and their three dogs (two schnauzers and an aussiedoodle) moved into the house in February.
The men have used it the last four months to ensure that everything is working perfectly. Now they are offering the house for sale at $45 million. The furniture and fixtures are available separately. “It can be turnkey,” Esplin says. The broker is Paul Benson of Engel & Völkers in Park City.
“I expect to get the full price,” says Benson. “It is not an outlier. We sold a house by the same architect in Park City last year for $65 million. And this is one of the most exceptional homes ever built in the state of Utah. You couldn’t recreate it for $45 million.”
Boccardo and Esplin declined to say how much it cost to build the house. But they got a bargain when they paid about $2 million for the 1.7 acre lot in 2021. (Benson says the land alone would command $7 million to $10 million today.) They chose the site, high above Park City, after searching for property that would let the house, with its dramatic cantilevers, be seen from below.
The property, which offers unobstructed views of the Wasatch Range, is in the Pinnacle , a gated community (complete with a clubhouse and a concierge) within the Promontory, a larger gated community—like a nightclub’s VVIP room entered through its VIP room.
With the site selected, they turned to Salt Lake City architect Michael Upwall, who is known for designing very large houses for the very rich. The dramatic aerie in HBO’s “Mountainhead,” with Steve Carrell, was one of his.
Laying out the house, Boccardo and Upwall, who served as co-architects, knew it would have a large living room with a wall of windows at one end and a stairway at the other. The stairway would lead, via a mezzanine, to one of the bedrooms. But that was all they could glean from the movie.
To finish the floorplans, says French, they had to answer all the questions the filmmakers never asked, such as “What’s behind that door?”and “What’s around that corner?”
And how many bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens are there? Their answer: six, eleven and three. (Boccardo and Esplin met French when they attended a lecture she gave about Hitchcock. The two men have since hired her to write about their house.)
Boccardo and Esplin also had to answer questions the filmmakers, even the wildly imaginative Hitchcock, would never have thought to ask:
How many black leather seats, fully reclining and heated, should there be in the home theatre? (18)
How much will it cost to fire-harden the house? (Over $1 million. “You can’t make a house completely fireproof, but you can improve its chance of surviving,” Esplin says. A special pump allows the water in the extra-deep, 75-foot lap pool to be used for firefighting.)
How much should we spend on custom walnut cabinetry? (Also over $1 million.)
What if our dogs’ feet get cold? (Relax. The house’s 100-foot-long gravel dog run is heated.)
Structural engineer Cambria M. Flowers figured out how to support the living room, which cantilevers 40 feet into thin air. The answer was to build two 160-foot-long steel-reinforced concrete beams, 120 feet of which anchor the cantilever while also supporting the ceiling of the garage.
Thick diagonal beams, like those shown prominently in “North By Northwest,” were slipped in later to provide additional stability. In the end, the project required 400 tons of steel, 4,000 cubic yards of concrete and 24 miles of electrical wire, according to contractor Gary Hill.
Now the men are ready to return to the last dream house they built, against dramatic red rocks in the southern Utah town of Ivins. Boccardo hopes the buyer of the Vandamm house is a lover of “North By Northwest.”
Esplin says that he and Boccardo, who dreamt of the house for more than 60 years, occasionally wonder if they really want to sell it. But then they remind themselves that it will be okay for someone else to own it. After all, Esplin says, “Many houses are built without stories. But this house has a story. And the story of this house belongs to us.”
