Set on a six-acre wooded, lakeside site in eastern Minnesota, the Cloud Forest House draws its inspiration—and name—from an unlikely source more than 3,000 miles away in Ecuador.
The owners were originally attracted to the immersive natural surroundings of the 1990s property because it reminded them of their travels to the cloud forest in the South American country, but after 10 years, they were ready to explore improvements to meet the needs of their active young family of five. Their priorities included expansive window views, a more spacious floor plan, and a stylistic facelift.
The renovations retained the existing footprint of the main living spaces, added a new primary bedroom suite, and relocated the garage.
Sara and Jeremy Imhoff of Imprint Architecture and Design, LLC welcomed the challenge to reimagine the home’s indoor/outdoor connection, while redefining the communal and private interior spaces and creating an updated contemporary appearance.
Applying their creativity and architectural knowledge on clients’ homes and projects, the husband-and-wife team also drew from a personal understanding of designing and renovating their own homes.
“Working on our own personal projects together, we really learned how to work with each other,” said Jeremy. “We set up a rule: If one of us doesn’t like the direction, let’s go back to the drawing board and rethink what we’re doing. And that always results in something better.”
Working on Cloud Forest House, Imprint shared a few design options with their clients. “One was keeping it more intact with incremental changes. A second scheme was a little more invasive, rethinking the whole main entry and roofline,” says Jeremy. The clients selected the latter, where the overall footprint of the main living spaces remained the same, but the garage was relocated. A new primary bedroom suite was also added to the main level, enlarging the existing home, and providing privacy for the parents and their growing children.
The site and existing driveway were minimally disturbed while relocating the garage and opening up the horizontal sight lines.
The previous two-car garage and entryway had been a prominent feature of the front elevation, blocking much of the home’s western light throughout the day. Imprint sought to open up the sight lines, extending views and daylighting throughout the interior.
“We laid out the floor plan relative to the site and the relationships we wanted to create, for example, with the lake,” Jeremy says. “We’re envisioning the whole entry and how you approach the house. The window areas become this thin line that separates the two. As you go along, it’s not just a thin line; we try to make that into a reality.”
Kolbe Windows & Doors’ VistaLuxe AL LINE was incorporated into the design to connect and transcend the home’s defined indoor and outdoor spaces. “Kolbe Windows & Doors was a huge part of learning into the open concept, envisioning the new design with the right materials,” Sara added. The newly-revamped great room gives the impression of entire walls of glass by combining lift-and-slide doors with large direct sets and clerestory windows in a single configuration. Operable windows are placed strategically throughout the house for natural ventilation.
Kolbe Windows & Doors began in 1946 as a two-brother team based in Wisconsin. Today, it is one of the nation’s leading window and door manufacturers known for superior quality, custom craftsmanship, attention to detail, as well as innovative and unique designs.
“With Cloud Forest House, we have a lot of expansive glass, but they’re in a very private wooden setting. We have to think about the context of where the house is and what they’re looking at out of all this glass. What I really appreciate about the windows is that the frames allow us to maximize their viewing area, blurring those lines between the inside and outside,” says Jeremy.
“Most spaces, you’re looking outside. I love pretty much every angle,” says Sara. “The views created are of the property, the trees and nature. It’s really neat to see the outdoor environment change when you’re inside this house. You can see the leaves, whether they’re green or it’s fall or they’re completely gone because it’s winter.”
Sara also highlighted the dual sight lines offered by corner windows. Along with outward northeast views from the primary bedroom suite and southeast views from the dining room, there is an inward perspective. “If you’re in one room or another, you’re looking outside and then looking back into the other room,” she says. “You’re having glimpses and opportunities for windows that face directions and angles that capture the light in different ways.”
Jeremy noted that one of his favorite perspectives in the house is found in “this interstitial space between the primary bedroom wing and the great room. It’s kind of a flex space with a long counter along the wall, where the family can sit at their computers and get stuff done.At the end of that space is a reading nook with a bench seat and this large window that has a great view down to the lake and into the wooded area.It’s a great example of how you can maximize the use of these hallway spaces.”
To further that indoor/outdoor connection, the homeowners worked with Imprint to select a material palette that combined indoor, contemporary comfort with outdoor, rugged materials. Locally-sourced concrete panels, ironwood siding and decking, and exposed structural steel beams are featured on the exterior of the house.
“The fact that Kolbe had the VistaLuxe AL LINE with the aluminum interior and exterior was a big driver,” says Sara. The finished aluminum requires very little maintenance. The frames’ insulated thermal barrier and dual-glazed Low-E glass enhance condensation resistance and energy performance in the hot summers and cold winters.
The renovated roofline features five-foot overhangs to provide interior and exterior shade without obstructing the magnificent views.
A stainless steel spiral staircase connects the pool level to the roof deck where the homeowners can remember about the cloud forests of Ecuador.
Complementing the palette, the all-aluminum frames of the Kolbe windows and doors were finished in Onyx to resemble aged steel. The dark color on the exterior pairs well with the wood siding, and presents a lasting contrast to the predominantly white interior walls. “Black is timeless. White is timeless,” says Sara.
The windows’ narrow frames accentuate the interior’s clean, crisp, modern design with elegant simplicity. “We were very conscious all the way through about how these finishes were interfacing with the windows, and how that was going to come together,” says Jeremy. “In reality, it’s harder to pull off when you can’t hide things with trim. You have to get everything down perfectly.”
Jeremy acknowledged the homeowners’ investments went beyond time and money, and represented their dreams of the cloud forests of Ecuador. The front of the house features a welcoming, single-story entrance “more anchored to the ground,” Jeremy says, “Then, as you go around back, it starts to float and reaches out toward the view. Sitting in that great room on the upper floor, it really does feel like you’re hovering out into the landscape.”
Looking out to the pool and toward the lake, this home’s elevation combines the delicacy of a two-story glass jewel box with the strength of visible supports. Sara called out the stacked “cantilever on top of a cantilever” featured on the primary bedroom suite and the massive steel beam that extends back into the house. “You see these elements, these forms that are strong and protruding out. It’s like somebody is flexing their muscles. It’s a strong, powerful house.”
The ground pool level of the house features a game room, entertaining area, wet bar and gym for the young family of five.
The equally strong, consistent communication and weekly meetings between Imprint, their clients, and contractor Hagstrom Builder, kept the project’s vision in focus and its construction on schedule, even as the pandemic and supply chain constraints posed challenges.
“When we can collaborate from the point when the architects start the design, then we can really help,” says Peter Hagstrom, president of Hagstrom Builder. Like Imprint and Kolbe Windows & Doors, Hagstrom celebrates being a family business and delivering a personalized, high-quality result. “Family business is a great thing for the US economy and it’s great to be part of it, having the loyalty and trust behind the scenes.”
Sara agreed: “For a house of this size to be completed in just over a year and a half during this timeframe it was remarkable.”
Kolbe’s VistaLuxe AL LINE help keep the newly added primary suite sun-drenched.
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