In the 1940s, a young wood- worker named George Nakashima moved his family to a patch of woods in New Hope, Pa., and over a span of four decades, he built a world-renowned business around his handcrafted wood furniture. He also constructed fourteen buildings, including a home, studio, and teahouse, which today stand as monuments to his spiritual connection to the earth, the trees, and design. Hundreds of pilgrims visit Nakashima’s property each year to better understand the philosophy that he described in his autobiography, The Soul of a Tree: “If this seemingly eternal life were ultimately to drop,” he wrote about thefallen tree, “it should be the hand of man which gives the tree a new existence, shaping its body for use and beauty.”

Today, thirty-nine-year-old Vicco von Voss may well be the modern day Nakashima. Known for his custom wood furniture, which he crafts in his Chestertown studio, the German-born von Voss is creating a spiritual oasis in his 1,200-square-foot timber frame home on his five-acre, waterview Kent County property. Thehome is a model of sustainability, resourcefulness, and craft, built from naturally fallen trees, including cedar, maple, cherry, cypress, and Eastern white pine, which von Voss transports and mills on-site. “I’ve always believed that a tree has a spirit and a soul, and this house is a manifestation of my connection to nature,” says von Voss. “I have a passion for working with logs, and it’s a real gift to open up years of history.”

To understand the genesis of this home and its design, it helps to go back to the beginning, back to a modest, 200-square-foot cabin in the woods. In 1994, von
Voss was finishing an apprenticeship in Germany with furniture designer Heinreich Meyerfeldt. Faced with heading off on his own, the young artist felt the strong desire to eschew the consumptive world of city living and live a more modest life closer to nature. “I am at my best in the woods, near the water,” he says. “It calms me.” He entertained the idea of moving to Alaska, but ultimately returned to more familiar ground, a patch of woodland owned by his parents and not far from his Chestertown alma mater, Washington College.

There he built a humble eight-by-twelve-foot structure, made primarily out of salvaged materials, where he lived for eight years. Heat came from a reclaimed wood stove, which also served to warm his water. He showered outside with the help of a water-filled camping bag suspended from a tree. He slept in a loft above the downstairs living space, which was outfitted with a kitchen, small dining table, and windows that looked out onto the woods. Above his bed, he placed two windows for stargazing. “Those skylights cost about $150. They were the most expensive part,” he says. “The whole [cabin] cost me $600.”

When his parents sold their land, von Voss bought his own parcel, where he relocated the cabin and soon became intrigued with the idea of building a timber- frame home. He traveled to rural Virginia to participate in a timber-framing event organized by the Timber Framers Guild.

He helped construct a building one afternoon and “after an hour, I was hooked,” von Voss says. “I didn’t have to learn anything, really, because I already did this in my furniture making. This was just on a bigger scale.”

Von Voss returned house and started plans for his own home. He began the process in 2005 by fabricating a timber-frame workshop, adding an A-frame shed where he mills large pieces of lumber, and a barn where he stores cut wood. For the main house, von Voss created a design that mixed European, Japanese, and American timber-framing styles in the exterior and interior. He enlisted Tom Andrews, a college buddy turned architect, to help him draw the plans.

Inside, the home feels as though you are communing with the woods outside. On the first floor, wood posts and beams include straight, clean masculine lines, which are often complemented with more organic, free-flowing, feminine lines. This main living area has an open floor plan, incorporating a kitchen, breakfast nook, and living room with glass French doors that open onto an expansive deck overlooking Island Creek. In the kitchen, von Voss paid homage to the trees that fell to make his home by using the timber of a harvested red oak for the summer beam. He decided to break up the all-wood motif by installing stainless-steel cabinetry from IKEA and slate tiles and countertops. He also built a wood-burning stove to bake bread, a favorite pastime. “I haven’t had a chance to fire it up yet,” he admits. “I’ve been a little busy.”

Up the winding staircase, set in a wood and glass tower, the second level includes a bath, with a freestanding glass shower and a walk-in closet. A large center hall separates the bath from the master bedroom, which opens onto a small deck. Von Voss wanted the space to feel open and “not like cubicles” so he designed the walls of the various spaces to reach only about half of the way to the vaulted ceiling. He carefully selected wood varieties to set the tone. “I used aromatic cedar in the bath and closet because it’s rot resistant,” he explains.

“I used cherry in the bedroom because it’s very sexy and feminine. I wanted to express the mood of the space through the wood.”

Taking in the whole of the landscape from the outside, the various buildings speak to one another through the harmonious style of their rooflines. (Frank Lloyd Wright, who successfully created cohesive, multi-building campuses, inspired von Voss.) Complementing the buildings are other aspects of a sustainable lifestyle: a small but thriving year-round garden that helps supply von Voss’s seasonal diet and a coop of noisy chickens that supply fresh eggs.

Like Nakishima before him, von Voss is already attracting visitors to his property. “People drove out here when I started building to watch the house come together,” he says. A couple from McClean, Va., recently toured the home, and they have commissioned von Voss to construct a decorative timber-frame room for them. “I’ve tried to create a synthesis between land, owner, and home,” von Voss says of his own project. “For clients, I hope to do the same thing, so that when the home is complete, it feels like it’s always been there.”

Elizabeth Evitts writes from her home in Baltimore.