Dwell 2015 11

modern world
outside
requirements larger than what the
Yudchitzes planned to build. In
September 2009, after seeing dozens of
sites, they landed a 2.78-acre lot with
water access on a wooded bluff overlooking
Lake Superior’s Chequamegon
Bay for $52,500. It’s 2.6 miles outside
Bayfield, Wisconsin, population 530,
and about a four-hour drive from each
of their homes.
Four months later, they completed a
cabin they christened the EDGE
(Experimental Dwelling for a Greener
Environment), a striking rectangular
structure clad with a white-oak rain
screen, topped with a playful butterfly
roof, and sporting integrated multifunctional
furnishings that doubled the livability
of its 325 square feet (plus two
85-square-foot sleeping lofts), Yudchitz
estimates. But because of the two men’s
admiration for Pritzker Prize winner
Peter Zumthor’s exquisite construction
details, it was built with the painstaking
precision of a Swiss watch—and it was
pricey. “It cost at least $100,000 to build
because the materials were crafted to
within .002 inches, so it’s expensive for
what it is,” says Yudchitz.
Nest’s main room, lined in
aspen plywood with a Douglas
fir floor, has folding chairs
found on eBay and a fold-out
birch table designed by the
team (above). One corner holds
a refillable water jug and a
stainless-steel washbasin (left).
Daniel hangs a folding chair,
Shaker style, on the wall adjacent
to the entrance (below).
The room gains extra light
through slivers of space
between the slats of the floor
above. Structural two-by-fours
and framing were left raw.
“ Anyone can build this from a set of plans.
It doesn’t take a lot of skill to do this.”
—Bill Yudchitz, architect and resident
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