The Modern Courtyard House The 7 modern houses below are designed with a courtyard as a significant feature of the home – whether as an enclosed entry or a sheltered central courtyard, these spaces enhance indoor/outdoor activity and provide a visual focus for the home. “The heart of each home is a private courtyard that

What’s it like to work with an architect to design your home? Well, we think it should be a lot of fun! What to Expect…Documenting the Process of Working with an Architect: This is part of an ongoing series of posts documenting the process of the 018House, a new contemporary residential project we began in April,

Modern Design Inspiration: a Simple Shed Roof Simple = Beautiful. We believe modern residential architecture should be simple, simplified and elegant. Today’s Modern Design Inspiration presents 7 beautiful modern houses, each with a simple shed roof. “Less, but better. My aim is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to the best possible advantage.”   —

I am currently in the unique position of acting as the design architect on a very large modern house project. Unique because this is my first experience, since starting my own firm, in collaborating with another architect on a project. This is a fantastic responsibility and I am extremely lucky as a small firm to

Yesterday I received an email from Bob Borson of Life of an Architect, inviting a group of us to join him in answering a few “commonly asked questions” to architects. Bob asked us all to publish our answers today on our blogs. It will be very interesting to see how various architects interpret and respond

What to Expect…Documenting the Process of Working with an Architect:  Listening is one of the most important qualities for an architect! We recently sat down for a series of meetings with the clients of the 018_House, a new project in our office which we will be writing about here and in subsequent posts. Studio MM

Modern Design Ideas for your Home: The Outdoor Shower Summer Solstice is sneaking up on us – Saturday, June 21st. The long, sunny days of summer are here, and as the weather gets hotter all we want to do is find a way to cool off… Recently in The Architect’s Notebook we’ve covered Modern Outdoor

Modern Home Design: Handrail Details A previous Design is in the Details post noted “Modern Residential Architecture is often defined as minimal or simplified…”  While that is generally true, in researching today’s post I came across a write-up on Life of an Architect in which Bob Borson more accurately suggests “…it’s rather nice sometimes to simply let something be

Warm weather and the first week of June means It’s officially Summer! Everyone seems to be outdoors, in flip-flops, and barbecuing in the backyard…. Let the pool parties begin! Today’s post introduces some cool, contemporary pool design ideas just in time for Summer! Reflecting pools, refracting pools, infinity pools, indoor-outdoor pools…these images should get you inspired for