Vicco Von Voss: Organically Inspired
- The heart of the home is the kitchen, with a cozy dining area nestled into a windowed tower suffused with natural light. CREDIT: Celia Pearson
Trees. For studio furniture maker Vicco Von Voss, they are his teachers and his building materials, the inspiration that links his life with his livelihood. His reverence for them is evident in the airy contemporary timber-framed house he designed and built in 2004 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Set back on five secluded acres overlooking Island Creek near Chestertown, the house is constructed mostly from local salvaged wood, in keeping with Von Voss’s belief in sustainability. Only 33 of the hundreds of trees used to build the house were cut—and those were white pine trees from a friend’s property “that we cut with the intention of giving them a new life,” he says.
“Every tree has a spirit in it,” notes the lanky 42-year-old as he tenderly rubs the massive red oak “summer beam” that serves as the structure’s primary support. “This tree used to stand where the stove is now,” he explains. “By incorporating it into the house, I’ve brought the spirit of the land into my home.”
For more of “Organically Inspired,” purchase the Summer 2011 issue of AmericanStyle!
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