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An Orcas Island Home Was the Dream. Here’s How They Made It a Reality.

A home should be a place where you can welcome your extended family — at least that’s what Leah Martin and Vikram Prakash thought. But while they loved entertaining at the house they shared with their three children, the experience wasn’t quite what they had in mind.

The steep, six-acre lot is shaded by Douglas fir trees.Credit…Rafael Soldi

“What happens is that when everybody comes to our Seattle home, our lives are so hectic we don’t really get to spend time together in the way we would really love to,” Ms. Martin said. “We had been thinking for a long time that it would be so nice to find a place where we could all truly decompress as a family.”

The home has views south toward Mount Rainier and north to Vancouver, Canada.Credit…Rafael Soldi

The obvious solution, they decided, was to build a second home in a rural spot outside the city. And because they are both architects — Ms. Martin, 53, is a principal of the architecture firm Allied8; Mr. Prakash, 60, is a professor of architecture at the University of Washington — they relished the idea of designing their own home.

The open living area offers room for extended family to gather. Mr. Prakash had the replica Chandigarh chairs made in tribute to his father, an architect who worked on Le Corbusier’s project in India.Credit…Rafael Soldi
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