Storybook Pond Residence.

November 17, 2025

Surrounded by towering maple and pine trees, a babbling brook leading to a frog pond, the scene is set for an Artist’s studio and family home. The extensive transformation in Duvall, WA is rooted in connecting an open layout to its natural environment.

Large gable-end windows compliment a continuous 30’ ridge skylight, flooding the main living space with warm diffused light. An expansive kitchen opens to the dining area and is booked-ended by a living room with a stone wrapped fireplace. This great room connects to a large outdoor deck, bridging the garden views.

This home is designed to the specific programming needs of our client, allowing for a tranquil primary suite with a floating tub and custom sauna. Other amenities include a dog-washing mud room, hydraulic elevator, art studio space with a private deck overlooking the landscape, providing ample inspiration.

From elegant detailing to larger architectural concepts creating clear axes and open flow, this design offers a nod to the previous farmhouse home, while introducing a modern experience. A carefully curated material palette brings natural elements inside and out, with stone wrapped walls, natural finishes, warm textures and accents of wood throughout, blending into its surrounding landscape.

Amer Zahr visits SZ Gallery — Photo by Flora Art Life

AMER ZAHR visits the SZ Gallery.

November 29, 2024

It was with great pleasure that we hosted Amer Zahr at SZ Gallery on October 11 for an intimate meet-and-greet, prior to his sold-out performance of “The Truth” at Town Hall Seattle. With the backdrop of Mahmoud Alhaj’s Control Anatomy exhibit at the SZ Gallery and select Posters for Gaza by various Palestinian Artists during his performance, SZ ensured Amer received a warm & artful welcome.

Amer is a Palestinian Arab American comedian, speaker, writer, academic, adjunct professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He draws on his experiences growing up as a child of Palestinian refugees, performing and lecturing on topics like politics, society, culture, identity, Palestine, Islam and more.

In our recent elections, Amer is one of two Arab American candidates who secure seats on Dearborn Board of Education, making an Arab American majority for first time. Way to go, Amer!

For our friends in the DC Area, grab your tickets to Amer’s upcoming show, live at The Howard Theatre on Sunday, December 1st at 6PM.

ORIGIN Salon Spa.

September 2, 2024

Ana Judeh, owner of Origin Salon Spa, reached out to Suzanne Zahr to help envision the full potential of her new location. Located in the heart of Redmond, Washington, Origin proudly serves their thriving city and the communities around it since 2005. They pride themselves on bringing out the inner beauty in every guest who comes through their door. In the same spirit, SZ explored ways to manifest health and well-being throughout their built environment.

Stay tuned for progress updates!

In the interim, please enjoy this recent blog post by ORIGIN Salon Spa...

Material Spotlight: CEDIT Compatta Collection.

September 2, 2024

A passion for earth as a natural material and for rammed earth, an ancient construction technique.

The COMPATTA collection, designed by Federico Peri, combines a passion for earth as a natural material and an interest in a very ancient construction technique. This unique catalog of porcelain stoneware slabs is created using the very latest ceramic product techniques, in which the “profoundly ancient” dialogues with the “state of the art”.

The primary inspiration derives from close observation of the many strata within the ground and the mixtures of elementary particles of which it consists. The design concept is completed by reference to the age-old rammed earth construction technique, used in northern Jordan since the eighth millennium BCE and widely applied in Yemen in many other desert or rural settings until the mid 19th century.

In this method, the raw earth is compacted inside wooden formwork to construct continuous structural walls, bearing walls or partitions inside homes, with a natural decorative effect due to the layering of the different shades of clay used.

When creating his project for CEDIT, Peri was also influenced by several design inputs: from rural African homes to the clear, simple geometric forms and curved lines typical of the work of Gio Ponti, the curves central to the modernist gardens of Brazilian landscape artist Roberto Burle Marx, and the three-dimensional mosaics of English sculptor William Mitchell. In his murals in concrete, glass and recycled materials, Mitchell seems to combine some of the typical features of a variety of artistic movements, from Modernism to Brutalism, and also shows awareness of the issues concerning the structure of the landscape and the relationship with nature at the heart of Land Art. COMPATTA thus embodies strong links to the world of art and architecture, while bringing natural impressions with a remote, primitive flavour into modern living-spaces.

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