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An empty-nester couple desired a modest structure that pays 'sincere deference' to its forest site on the Door Peninsula of eastern Wisconsin. The Milwaukee firm of Johnsen Schmaling Architects responded with a simple rectangular 1,850-square-foot volume nestled in a clearing on the 4-acre property. Its charred-wood siding echoes the texture and color of the closely surrounding tree trunks. 'The challenge with this setting,' says Sebastian Schmaling, who designed the house with partner Brian Johnsen, 'is tempering the inherently disruptive act of building in nature. We made an ambiguous boundary, one that softens the geometry and moderates the transition from artificial to natural.'