Fifty-Acre Wood is a Minnesota home designed by Salmela Architect<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLocated near a waterfall, the property features an oak forest and farm fields that are replanted with local herbs. The area supports a range of wildlife, including black bears, foxes, ridge cranes, and blue herons.<\/p>\n
The owners are a married couple – Yoko and Paul – who met and lived in Japan before moving to Minnesota with their two young sons. Paul grew up exploring the Saint Croix River Valley and wanted his children to have a similar experience.<\/p>\nIt consists of a set of volumes comprising the living and sleeping areas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUnlike Paul’s upbringing, Yoko grew up in the dense Japanese city of Fukuoka, and at first felt uncertain about living in a wide-open scene.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHer wish was for a home that feels protected, while incorporating familiar cultural references into this unfamiliar setting,\u201d said Salmela Architect, a Minnesota firm best known for designing homes in a modern, regional style.<\/p>\nThe house overlooks the surrounding landscape<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe architects envisioned a series of buildings that are organized around a central courtyard. The design is based on two references: a group of farm buildings with shaded roofs and a Japanese house with sheltered exterior walkways.<\/p>\n
The main residence consists of two L-shaped wings connected by a glass corridor. Nearby are a separate guest house, garage and multi-purpose building.<\/p>\nThe interior design is characterized by a simple and simple material panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n“Each of the five structures has been positioned according to function, solar orientation, and relationship to specific landscape features,” the company said.<\/p>\n
The facades are covered with cedar cedar, and the ceilings are covered with standing metal. Interior finishes include slate tiles, quartz countertops and light-colored basswood sheathed ceilings.<\/p>\nPaved paths surround the house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn the main residence there is a clear separation between public and private spaces.<\/p>\n
One of the suites includes a semi-open kitchen, dining area and living room. It is located on an east-west axis and overlooks a gently rolling field.<\/p>\nThe living areas have views across the site in all directions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cThe south-facing, floor-to-ceiling windows create a sense of interior and exterior continuity, which is reinforced by horizontal wood slats on both the exterior and interior roof,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\n
“This Japanese architectural reference helps soften the acoustics of hard surfaces within the wide-open room.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Architect Salmela wraps Feldmann Residence in Minnesota in black plaster<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/aside>\n In the kitchen, the team provided views from all directions. The large north window provides visual lines to the yard, entry path, and driveway, providing a sense of security.<\/p>\n
The house lacks a traditional foyer. Instead, one enters through a sill made up of “symmetrical blade walls” located between the kitchen and the mudroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile clients were initially hesitant about the unusual sequence of arrival, they expressed how comfortable it was to welcome people into their homes without the usual awkwardness associated with a formal lobby,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\nThe house is open plan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe house’s other wing, which includes the bedrooms, runs north to south and embraces the edge of the woods.<\/p>\n
“The three bedrooms, the two shower rooms and the sink – overlook the oak forest, which filters warm morning light through its leaves, signaling the beginning of the day,” the studio said.<\/p>\nTile covers floors across common living areas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe sleeping areas are arranged along a corridor that serves as a work space.<\/p>\n
“They remain shaded throughout the work day, creating the perfect glare-free environment until the low evening sun signals dinner time,” the company said.<\/p>\nSleeping areas are accessed along the corridor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThroughout the house, the team incorporated a number of elements to help reduce energy consumption. These include operable windows, a hydropneumatic in-floor heating system, an air-to-air heat exchanger, and a high level of insulation.<\/p>\n
“Six-foot-deep eaves and a south-facing orientation provide an ideal passive solar strategy that increases heat gain in winter while completely blocking the midsummer sun,” the team added.<\/p>\nThe windows were random spots across the walls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe house also has three skylight boxes that open and close, allowing hot air to escape. At night, the boxes are lit with electric lights.<\/p>\n
Outside the main house, the team set up a guesthouse in the west, providing a level of separation and privacy for overnight visitors, including Yoko’s parents from Japan.<\/p>\nThe carved fire pit is framed by a square window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nTo the north is a two-story garage and “barn,” a multi-purpose space for play and storage. The buildings are accessed through paved walkways that surround the courtyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cExterior walkways surround the inner courtyard planted with native plants \u2013 a microcosm and counterpoint to a larger landscape restoration project,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\nThe house is equipped with a number of ecological and green systems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOther projects by Salmela Architect include a house for a physicist and an ophthalmologist supposed to resemble a “multi-viewing aperture scientific instrument” and a solar powered house built for an architecture professor.<\/p>\n
Photography by Corey Jaffer.<\/em><\/p>\nProject credits:<\/strong><\/p>\nArchitect:<\/strong> Engineer Salmilaa team:<\/strong> David Salmela (Director), Kay Salmela (Head of Design), Emre EhrenlerEnergy advisor:<\/strong> Malini SrivastavaStructural Engineer:<\/strong> Mayer Burgmann Johnsoncontractor:<\/strong> Kites Fine Homes<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of timber-clad buildings surround a central courtyard in this Minnesota residence by American firm Salmela Architect designed for…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interior-design","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wijhha.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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