30 All-Black Exterior Modern Homes
Here's a collection of various modern homes we chose for their use of black siding; whether it be wood, steel, or another material.
"From the street, it appears as a rectangular building with sloping shed roofs, but this is actually an illusion," Hutchison notes. "The floor plan is actually U-shaped, wrapping around an entry courtyard that is contained by the continuous west facade." A standing seam metal roof by Custom Bilt Metals blends in with the cedar siding.
For this tiny house in the Belgian forest, a little extra square footage comes in the form of a glassed-in addition with a stellar view.
Since Copenhagen is generally cold, the house was painted black to trap warmth. The result was that in its first year, it consumed so little energy that the client received a generous refund from the heating company. "Many wooden houses in Scandinavia use this trick," Larsen says. "On sunny days it even radiates warmth, so that in spring and autumn you can sit outside by the wall and in this way extend the outdoor season by a few weeks every year. These weeks are valuable in places with little light."
The Andersen Architectural Collection’s Eagle windows and doors provide the panes and passageways of the home.
The modern addition sits on a concrete platform that extends past the house’s envelope, creating welcoming patios on each side. "From any space within the home you are no more than a few steps from one of the outdoor spaces," Busick says. On the west-facing back porch, Green Kite Chairs by Karim Rashid and a poppy-red hammock offer ideal spots from which to take in the sunset.
In Scandinavian regions, traditional cabins are painted black using a mixture of tar and linseed oil. Peck reproduced the look using corrugated metal—a lower-maintenance, more sustainable material. "We love that it is black, because it really reminds us of home," Bronee says. The house has no windows on its front side, belying its light-flooded interior.
Linden specified a black stain from Cabot for the house’s exterior. The shade draws on Scandinavian and Japanese building traditions and helps the structure blend into the landscape. Native grasses populate the courtyard.
The design eschews right angles on the exterior and interior, which was one of the most challenging aspects of the design for Kallesø.
!["The cedar siding is simply stained with a black semi-transparent oil stain [from Cabot], which allows the color of the wood to still emerge through," architect Robert Hutchison says. "We love how the black color makes the building recede into the background, and how it in turn allows the trees on the site to emerge as the highlight."](https://images2.dwell.com/photos/6063391372700811264/6133526213865357312/original.jpg?auto=format&q=35&w=160)
"The cedar siding is simply stained with a black semi-transparent oil stain [from Cabot], which allows the color of the wood to still emerge through," architect Robert Hutchison says. "We love how the black color makes the building recede into the background, and how it in turn allows the trees on the site to emerge as the highlight."
The Shayan House takes full advantage of its canyon site.
Since the front door is located in the exterior wall, residents first enter a vast garden before reaching the gable roof house.
Fujimori demonstrates the process of charring cedar boards. After seven minutes, the length of time it takes to produce the proper amount of char, the boards are separated.
Courtyard House, Location: Somers Victoria Australia, Architect: Rowan Opat .Evolving from the notion of a series of outbuildings on a greenfi eld site, principles of passive solar design have informed this courtyard house. The northern eaves respond directly to shading becoming shallower in proportion to the depth of space as experienced in the square plan. As the dominant designed area, on this hectare site, the courtyard both surrounds and is surrounded by the house, creating a contained space within an otherwise semi-rural block.
Sævik compares her house to a contemplative hideout. "It’s very quiet," she says. "You can concentrate and let thoughts fly." Her favorite summer pastimes include reading, painting, drawing, yoga, and "just sitting and feeling the forest," she says.
A client with grown children requested a small dwelling that could double as a work space. Cedar siding painted in Jet Black by Benjamin Moore contrasts the natural wood fencing.
Carl Turner and Mary Martin pose on the porch of the Stealth Barn, a multipurpose structure that plays as a guest cottage, office space, and escape from whatever may be cooking at Ochre Barn.
A section of the roof reaches over a rock outcropping—a detail that visually connects the house to the landscape and offers a handy way to climb up to the roof deck without using a ladder.
Torontonians Dan and Diane Molenaar head north to Drag Lake when they need a weekend away from urban life—though they brought some of the city with them. The mirrored windows that circle the cottage were recycled from two office towers in Toronto.
"Everyone stops to look at the building," says Motoshi. Neighbors may stare at the severe facade, but once inside they are amazed with the quality and comfort of his home. Its efficient design comes from IDEA Office’s clever rethink of local zoning regulations and required setbacks.
House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.
Storey calls this house the "Eel’s Nest," after the narrow urban properties that go by that name in Japan. Its façade was originally going to be wood, but because of local building codes and the fact the building is built along the edge of the property line, the exterior had to be fireproof. Storey covered it with stucco instead. "I wanted it to look as rough as possible," says the architect. "Since it’s such a small house, it needed to be tough-looking."
The workshop at ground level measures less than 200 square feet, but is set up to accommodate any kind of woodworking or welding; when not in use, the architect parks his car inside.
"Sustainability is very important to us," lead architect Heather Dubbeldam says. "It is easy to design with passive systems, to use passive sustainable principles to influence the design and layout of the house." Her team reduced the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting through carefully positioned doors and windows that draw in natural light and breeze. New insulation, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and low-energy lighting also minimize the homeowners’ dependence on utilities.
Though traditionally, three Japanese cedar boards are bound to form a long triangle and a fire is started within the resulting tunnel, Weijnen built a brick oven to accommodate two six-foot-long larch wood boards at a time when he charred his wood in Amsterdam. After removing the planks from the brick oven, Weijnen doused them with water if the fires didn't go out on their own. He used his less successful pieces in the kitchen ceiling.
The exterior of the Housemuseum has something of s Farth Vader look to it, without directly mimicking the brutalism that exemplified much of Melbourne’s modernist architecture of the 1960s. The street names that form the corner on which it sits—Cotham and Florence—are marked out in the chocolate-brown brickwork fence.
For 2015, Vipp, the Danish industrial design company known for its iconic trash cans and all-black kitchens, introduces a 592-square-foot prefab unit called Shelter.
Referencing the First Presbyterian Church’s slate roof, 12 + Alder makes nice to its divine neighbor.
The owners’ goal was to transform the 19th-century building into a bold single-family residence. Historical architectural details were made modern with a striking black facade, while inside, a flexible living space that opens into an exterior garden enables a simplified lifestyle.
Two Black Sheds incorporates all the conventional aspects of a weekend retreat in a rather unconventional way.
A side view of the house and of Salmela’s signature architectural feature: the "unchimney." All windows are from Loewen.
The house is divided into three sections connected by a series of outdoor galleries. "When I walk from one room to another, I have to go outdoors and feel the weather and nature—rain, cold, and sun," says Sævik.
Instead of emphasizing the expansive panorama of oak, pine, and aspen trees, the house frames select views—a move inspired by Japanese design.
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