The Pacific Northwest is one of the country’s more majestic locales. Ripe full of natural landscapes and architecture that reflects the environment, Seattle and the surrounding areas offer its residents and visitors alike a rare chance to enjoy nature and industry working together as a sustainable, mesmerizing force.

Curtis and Emmons Architects display the kind of modern approach to Seattle’s contemporary homes that lend this area such a unique appeal.

The Kirkland Home

From the Web site:

Commodity: A design to fit your practical needs.

Firmness: A design to conform to all pragmatic requirements such as structural, electrical and environmental soundness.

Delight: The most difficult goal to achieve. Delight is the goal that separates a truly well-designed house from the mediocre.

An architect who provides you with delight is a translator of your dreams and imagination. Delight is a goal beyond providing shelter: It is a desire to make your heart sing because of the intangible beauty of your home.

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.

Seattle has a history of modernism; the great northwestern city has long pushed construction boundaries and architectural approaches. Before green construction was part of the vernacular, Seattle focused on numerous public and private projects that accentuated the city’s natural landscape and used resourced materials from the surrounding environments.

Seattle remains on the forefront of architectural innovation. The project designs that broke the mold 10 years ago are now standard building practices. The market place is full of Seattle’s modern urban dwellings that attract the city’s residents and lend inspiration to other cities across the United States.

The challenge now is to build affordable, modern and green structures on expensive real estate that reflect the city’s diverse neighborhoods. These structures take a long time to finish. They are usually small, as they are confined to the city’s shrinking land space. And they’re expensive.

Nonetheless, the Remington Court Urban Dwellings designed by Hybrid Architects is nearing completion. These much-anticipated spaces are modern, green, affordable, and located in Seattle’s Squire Park.

This description is from the website:

An Eco-friendly, and environmentally sustainable urban dwelling project designed by Seattle’s award winning and internationally published architect firm, HyBrid-Seattle. Sophisticated modern design complimentary to the progressive needs of urban sustainability. Located in Seattle’s Squire Park neighborhood Remington Court Sustainable Urban Dwelling is centrally located to First Hill, Capitol Hill, and Downtown.

Three south facing units, with approximately 1500sf each, enjoy southern views towards Mt. Rainier and North Beacon Hill. Each unit offers floor to ceiling windows emitting natural light through out the space. Design incorporates gas fired hydronic in floor heating system in combination with natural convection principles for the heating of homes. Large southern oriented windows and concrete floor absorb and radiat heat during winter months while cooling the homes in the evenings. Heavily insulated walls provide additional thermal protection.