The architect Marcel Breuer arrived in Boston in the late 1950’s. Breuer, fresh from a stint at the Bauhaus School, signed on to create a unique modern home in Andover, a town 15 miles north of the city.

Andover was an ideal location for a modern home because it offered plenty of acreage on which to build. Constructed in the late fall, the landscape was often blurred by wind and the blowing of leaves, by undulating roads and long, plush hills that stretched into the gray New England sky. But Breuer’s architecture is alive with a clean and vibrant design. It retains nothing of the harsh winter, and instead brings to life a modern home with white and stone exterior, glass walls, and an open floor plan.

Marcel Breuer was a pioneer of the Bauhaus School. His work on this Boston home exemplifies his dedication and school of thought, a credo that understands building as the most sophisticated form of creativity.

The home is suffused with natural light and features built-in bookcases that stand as dividing walls between rooms.

The Glass Wall looks out over the property’s two acres of land. With it’s abundant light, stone and glass, the design of this modern Boston Home is derived from the lessons of the Bauhaus School.

The ground is sinking beneath the real estate market. Why, then, do we continue to see the construction of innovative new homes, from New York to Seattle, Austin to Nashville? The answer is a modern one.

Modern real estate, and the architects and designers that help to develop it, is thriving. It uses environmentally sound approaches and creates awe-inspiring work. Their techniques are more costly than traditional building methods, but the moral and aesthetic results are worth the price. And they leave a solid footprint on an otherwise sinking ground.

Nashville might not be a hub of modern real estate, but it’s getting there. Tales From the Road, a southern living magazine, recently described Nashville’s Ryan Thewes and his zigzag roof house.

Thewes, who specializes in organic architecture, designed this addition for his home in the Sylvan Park neighborhood and described the zig-zag roof as an outgrowth of his interior design goals.

“The forms were derived from the roof line,” Thewes explained. “The whole design was from the inside out.”

Essentially, Thewes built on top of a sun room he described as “useless space,” adding a bathroom/closet above it and a work space/studio above that. Thewes used the form and windows to achieve a balance between privacy and light for his work space.

Austin is known for its vibrant music scene, but behind that wall of sound a different artform has taken stage. Slowly, steadily, Austin has become a beacon of modern architecture. Residences, commercial and public spaces are crafted with precision and creativity. The combination of its rich culture and impressive design make Austin a uniquely modern city.

These shots are from the Agave Neighborhood.

Collaborative Designwork is responsible for some of the more interesting Houston modern real estate. As these pictures prove, their work is visually attractive, but it also possesses a straightforward practicality and urbane attitude. Couple this with a green aesthetic and you’ve got a winner, Houston-style.

The 505 House

From the Collaborative Designwork Web Site:

The 505 honored with Paper City Magazine’s 2007 Design Excellence Award for house less than 3500 SF
Recipient of Grand Award in 2007 Residential Architect Design Awards
2007 winner of AIA Housing Award for 1 & 2 Family Production Housing
Texas Society of Architects 2006 Design Award winner and featured in the AIA Home Tour

The 505 sits near Houston’s rejuvenated downtown on West Alabama Street. The Project is designed within the economic and market constraints of a speculative housing development and achieved financial success while also making responsible use of land, incorporating sustainable design principals, and possessing an Architectural identity.

The property was eligible to hold 5 units, but only 4 were built in order to leave space for yards and to reduce the amount of shared walls, thereby allowing for more windows. The window placement is carefully refined to provide views and an abundance of natural light without sacrificing privacy. Third floor roof decks located between units engender a sense of community while providing an outdoor buffer between living spaces. The unique form is a simple box that has been activated by a single shift made in plan. This shift allows windows to be placed underneath overhangs and oriented North/South rather than across to the adjacent units. The rotation in plan creates opportunities for flexible yet defined internal volumes that play dual roles: Kitchen millwork vs. wet bar | breakfast table vs. entertainment center | food prep area vs. dining service space.

There’s a reason for this.

But still.

It’s just plain crazy. I mean, pretty much every modern design publication– blogs, Web sites, magazines. The little house has been featured in them all!

800 square feet. Built for $100,000. Indiscriminately cool. RED. So red it stands sharply against Seattle’s often color-drained landscape.

David Sarti designed and lives in this modern-day marvel. And it’s a testament to Seattle’s contemporary design.

From Metropolis Mag:

It’s a sweet fire-engine-red box planted in the backyard of a Central District home. I walked down the grassy driveway past an unremarkable blue traditional home and was surprised to see this Bauhaus cube where another yard might have a swing set. The red HardiPanel siding made it look very much of the moment, but the efficiency of design and small size were reminiscent of the workers’ houses that Gropius and his contemporaries built in Europe between the wars.

From the Seattle Times:

David Sarti’s newly finished, modernist-style house in Seattle’s Judkins Park, a little south of East Yesler Way, is the first he has designed and built for himself. It is a showcase for his aesthetic sensibilities and an embodiment of his can-do spirit.

From Dwell:

In a largely un-redeveloped area of Seattle, David Sarti pioneers a new vernacular.

We know Denver. We like it, too. It’s a rugged city, a modern city, a city with distinctive charm. When you are in Denver, you never look up and think, “Hmmm, I could be anywhere in the world right now.” No. You always know where you are — if not for the snow-capped Rockies then for the smattering of cool modern architecture nestled among the streets and trees, the dirt paths and endless woods.

Prefab homes are a particular treat. And they seem to fit here, like they got together with the surrounding environment and struck a deal. MetaStudio sets a fine example of the good work that comes from respect, distillation, and inspiration. Their design philosophy, per their Web site, is “specific architecture that is at once functional and poetic.”

PREFAB P2

From the Web site:

The concept for the P2 model is to create a dialogue with the site.  The layout consists of two pavillions: one exclusively for living, dining, entertaing and the second for rest.  Inhabitants are encouraged to engage the site both physically and visually.  Ideally this concept would serve as a vacation home or a small primary residence.  The design is layed out in such a way that it will fit on and fulfill all the requirements for an average lot size of 50′x125′ thus becoming an option for urban infill.  The living, dining, entertaining pavillion is raised slightly above the site to evoke a sense of detachment from neighboring structures and in turn an added layer of privacy.

Fans of HBO’s “The Wire” know Baltimore as a drug-addled urban jungle, where the closest thing to modern architecture is a tenement house with tarps strewn across its windows.

But it has much more, including Baltimore’s modern architects, who fill the city with ambitious, elegant projects.

Patrick Sutton Associates is responsible for some of Baltimore’s more exciting residences and commercial properties.

This renovation/addition project caught out eye for its sharp lines and use of light. The design slips into and accentuates the surrounding environment and yet creates an appearance of unique, modern, and smart architecture.

From the Web site:

The goal of the design team in this renovation/ addition was to create a clean-lined, uncluttered look in a rich palette of natural materials - mostly steel, wood and glass. Renovations included converting the former garage into a new living and dining space and creating a new, more visible two-story entrance. They also designed a new garage topped by a combination office/ guest house that triples as a changing area for the adjacent pool.

The NY Times did a feature on a home in Marina del Ray, CA recently. The article describes the process with which architect David Hertz approached the home, a property he calls “a dog, an abomination.”

The home was built in 1923 and features a wooden shingle roof that envelopes the residence like a chafing brown paper bag. But the home boasted picturesque ocean views as well. The cost to tear down the home and build something new, coupled with the fact that the owners would lose their ocean views, inspired architect and owners alike to reconsider the space, transforming it into a classic California modern home.

From the Article:

A squat box of a house in Marina del Rey, Calif., was built in 1923, but the second floor, with its mushroomlike mansard roof, was added in the ’70s. The architect in charge of its renovation, results of which are seen at right, dryly described it as “a community service project.”

A modular Kartell sofa in a rubberized fabric provides room to stretch out in the double-height rec space. The wood bench is by David Trubridge, the floor lamp is from Foscarini and the rug is from Gandia Blasco.

A network of ipe-wood slatted panels creates a striking facade. The panels slide shut over doors and windows, ensuring privacy and filtered light inside.

Norman Cherner of the Cherner Chair Company inspired countless designers. Most important, perhaps, is the inspiration he developed in his sons, Benjamin and Thomas.

Benjamin and Thomas followed in their father’s footsteps as designers. But a designer is a vague word, a word that can mean anything, really — designers of what, you might say. In this case, the Cherners designed hundreds of projects — homes, interiors, accessories — garnering attention and applause in the world of modern architecture.

Current projects focus on sustainable seating. Chairs for the kitchen and dining room, the bedroom and study. Chairs for homes, offices, or restaurants. It doesn’t really matter where the chairs go, so long as they are crafted with sustainable materials, that they are comfortable and attractive.