The glazed envelope and overhang of the new studio puts the material collage on full display. It is designed in the Miesian pavilion tradition, a study in planes and columns. A crushed stone perimeter fills in the carport and steps to the courtyard. Wittman explains: “We wanted to continue the blurring of Japanese landscape design with modernists like Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.” Photo 9 of 11 in Take a Trip Through the Pacific Northwest With 10 Modern Spaces from A Blissful Retreat Replaces a Scrap-Filled Yard in Seattle

Take a Trip Through the Pacific Northwest With 10 Modern Spaces

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For Seattle architects Matt Wittman and Jody Estes, the slow road to upsizing really paid off.
Facing rising housing costs downtown, they traded an apartment for a small house in a gritty neighborhood, sensing promise in a deep, skinny lot with a scrap-filled yard. A crushed stone perimeter fills in the carport and steps to the courtyard. Wittman explains: "We wanted to continue the blurring of Japanese landscape design with modernists like Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright."