Rise | We've Done the Research
Shou Sugi Ban Modern Home With Dramatic Exterior
"People always ask, 'Why do you want to be out there?'" says Debbie Koop, who, with her husband Steve Koop, built and lives in their sustainably designed soon-to-be retirement home in rural Minnesota. The reasons are simple—and go deep. "I grew up on a farm, so I'm used to rural," she says. "Plus, this place is special to both of us."
Debbie went to the College of Saint Benedict. Her husband attended Saint John's University, known internationally for its architecture by Marcel Breuer. The schools are four miles apart in Saint Joseph/Collegeville area, about 10 minutes from their new home in Avon. Steve's grandparents are from the area, and he has lots of relatives living nearby. Moreover, the colleges provide the couple with an active social life full of arts, culture, and spirituality.
Their son, Colin Koop, is an architect and partner at SOM. "We wanted him to design a house for us," she says. His interest in modernism, in addition to the Breuer buildings nearby, turned them toward contemporary design. The desire for a home that lives lightly on the land came from her father, "a farmer ahead of his time with his sustainable approaches to working the land."
Table of Contents
In the Fall of 2017, the Koops moved into their 3,300-square-foot-home, comprised of a one-level house and garage enclosing a courtyard designed by Laura Kamin Lyndgaard of Coen + Partners in Minneapolis. The open-plan home has 16-foot-high vaulted ceilings. Two nearly 40-foot spans of energy-efficient Marvin floor-to-ceiling windows are on the exterior walls.
A sculptural, wood-burning, board-formed concrete fireplace, built by Mike Gohman of W. Gohman Construction, designed to reference Breuer’s Abbey Bell Tower at Saint John's, anchors the living space. Family friend and Saint John's University potter Richard Bresnahan hand-crafted the clay bricks in the firebox.
Interior designer Sheree A. Vincent, Certified Green AP, founder of Fusion Designed in Forest Lake, MN, guided the couple in their interior sustainability selections. "Sustainability is the foundation of my design practice," Vincent says. "As a couple, Debbie and Steve are in tune with the environment and want to protect it any way they can. Colin works within a sustainable practice. It was a great collaboration between all the parties."
An Indoor-Outdoor Relationship
The team created a symbiotic relationship between the indoors and the outdoors. Colin sited the home, so the entire interior is flooded with natural light throughout the day, while window coverings provide light and temperature control when needed. Within the open-plan interior, a free-standing wall between the morning room and dining room, and another between the living room and kitchen, delineate those spaces.
Sustainable Furniture
Ninety percent of the furnishings that Vincent specified came from manufacturers vetted by and are members of the Sustainable Furnishings Council. Several sofas and chairs, and the fabric with which they were upholstered, come from Lee Industries, a company committed to manufacturing earth-friendly products in the U.S. using sustainable processes.
Other swivel and lounge chairs, dining chairs, barstools, soy cushions, fabric, and outdoor furniture came from Room and Board, committed to environmental responsibility. The office chairs are from American Leather, a U.S. company that constructs each frame from wood harvested from sustainable forests. These leathers use water-based pigments.
Colin designed the walnut dining table and buffet, hand-crafted by a Minnesota based business, Eastvold Furniture, that uses sustainable materials. The project used local materials, contractors, and subcontractors throughout the construction process.
Sharing a Sustainable Philosophy
Situated between an old-growth forest and a restored prairie, the home was "a dream to work on," Vincent says. "To design at this level, with sustainability at the forefront, was possible because Debbie and Steve shared the same sustainable design philosophy."
Simultaneously, the team worked with the basic design principles of harmony, scale, balance, proportion, and color to create open and intimate spaces. As a result, the home serves the couple, their extended family, and their extensive social network. Says Debbie, "We're all pretty happy and proud with how the house turned out."
Camille LeFevre
Camille LeFevre is an architecture and design writer based in the Twin Cities.
