nArchitects act as their own clients in the design of their family home within a forest clearing in upstate New YorkThis project was shortlisted in the 2024 AR House awards. Read about the full shortlist hereThe innate instinct that early humans had to gather around warmth was not only associated with the cold that evenings bring. The warmth also inflected a sense of privacy and enclosure that, without walls, oriented attention towards a focal point, placing the evening behind them.Nestled in a forest clearing, 60 metres from a nearby lake, the CLT House instead re-orients the inhabitants direction outwards, through large windows, towards the surrounding forest. The living areas, kitchen and bedrooms are placed towards the outer edge of the building, while the bathrooms and utilities are held within the buildings core.The floor is cut away in each of the buildings four corners to create double-height spaces. In the corner to the right of the main entrance, a bright green steel staircase leads to a view of the nearby lake, while the other three double-height corners punctuate the kitchen, living room and dining space.Rooms are not necessarily given a volume according to their function; for example, an empty landing at the top of the staircase takes up the size of a room. Empty space which is left unprogrammed has a dynamic potential. The kids invent games there, stretching a bedsheet between two chairs and playing indoor volleyball, describes co-founder of nArchitects, and owner of CLT House, Eric Bunge.CLT House under constructionCredit:nArchitectsThe CLT construction is expressed throughout the interior of the building, and is even used to create the bedroom desks. Windows are large but the openings are shallow, accommodating the thinness of the CLT structure. In contrast to the brighter living areas, the bathrooms within the core are designed with a darker palette, consisting of black terrazzo tiles with large white aggregate.The house borrows from the early vernacular construction methods of early settlements through its use of waney-edge cedar cladding. Unlike these early settlements, the building facade was constructed from prefabricated materials, taking only 11 days to build. The timber cladding was left without a finish to allow the material to mark the passing of time. Its incredible how differently each facade has reacted over time, Bunge explains. The timber facade is not only a response to the surrounding forest but also a reminder of the passage of time.A primary reference for the CLT House was an unbuilt project the architects developed in 2008 as part of Ai Weiweis Ordos 100 development in Inner Mongolia, north China, where 100 architects were invited to build a private home. Alongside their built work, nArchitects pursue questions of incompleteness and what dictates a finished project. Although the CLT House stands as a complete building, it also acts as an armature to accommodate different ways of living. It is intentionally designed as if it were a scaled basswood model, Bunge explains, so that you can complete the experience yourself.