The striking black facade of Pieter Weijnen's home in IJburg, Amsterdam, is the result of the Japanese practice of charring wood. Weijnen, an architect at the Amsterdam firm Faro, first discovered charred wood through the work of Terunobu Fujimori and later traveled to the Japanese island of Naoshima to observe the traditional technique. Photo by Hans Peter Follmi. Photo 2 of 7 in Tightly Squeezed Modern Architecture by Jami Smith

Tightly Squeezed Modern Architecture

2 of 7

The striking black facade of Pieter Weijnen's home in IJburg, Amsterdam, is the result of the Japanese practice of charring wood. Weijnen, an architect at the Amsterdam firm Faro, first discovered charred wood through the work of Terunobu Fujimori and later traveled to the Japanese island of Naoshima to observe the traditional technique. Photo by Hans Peter Follmi.