Modus V Studio celebrated its 3rd anniversary in March 2009. The company has grown substantially in food services and residential design. Notable projects include Qube restaurant and the Hawthorne Hills house, which serves as the company's office. Looking ahead, Modus V Studio aims to implement green technologies in residential design to promote sustainability. The annual review provides an overview of completed projects from 2007-2009 and previews future goals in green building.

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MODUS STUDIO
VIVENDI An Architecture E-Magazine by Modus V Studio
1st Quarter 2009 Vol 01
ANNUAL
REVIEW
News and reviews for
Modus V Studio
REMODELING
IT’S NOT JUST GOING GREEN A CASE FOR
Our take on what green
DONE RIGHT
FAST FOOD... SCRAPS
means to the practice of
Save money (and head-
Cool new dining terrace at Inspirations from the found
architecture
aches) by planning ahead
Westfield Southcenter objects

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NEWS AND MODUS STUDIO
REVIEWS
Modus V Studio will be celebrating its 3rd birthday in March 2009. Thanks to
the support of our friends, clients, and partners, we have achieved much that we
are very proud of.
Our portfolio has grown substantially in two areas that we have focused in –
food services and residential. In the fall of 2008, the design of Qube restaurant,
was published in “Boutique Restaurants” by John Riordan. Qube was one of our
very first projects, and since then we have been involved a number of other
restaurant projects such as Sushi Itto and Sbarro at Southcenter. We are now
very confident of Modus V Studio’s ability to handle a restaurant project of any
type or size. In the past few months, once again partnering with our friend who
started Qube restaurant, we are working on the design of an Asian night market
in the International District of Seattle that features over 40 food and retail
vendors. It is projected to open by late summer this year.
We have also grown tremendously in the residential area over the last years. We
have finished a number of remodels and in late 2008, we have completed our
most challenging project so far, the Hawthorne Hills house. The Hawthrone Hills
QUBE RESTAURANT
“BOUTIQUE RESTAURANTS” by JOHN RIORDAN
house is owned, designed, and constructed by Modus V Studio, and will accom-
modate our office. We have written a blog,
houseathawthornehills.blogspot.com, in which we share our experience
throughout this project. Other than that, we are currently working on three
other residences that we designed, all slated to be completed by the end of
2009.
Looking ahead, we are looking into implementing green technologies in our
residential designs so that our work can bring a positive change to the way we
live. We believe that building technology is ripe to take a great leap forward, to
finally contribute in a significant way to protect the environment, and bring real
and tangible benefits to everyone. Though the economy is not doing so well
these days, perhaps this is an opportunity for us to question the way we do
things. In many ways, this is high time for us to come up with ways to consume
less, improve efficiencies, and become less dependent on non-renewable
sources of energy through architectural design. Though we are a small
company, we very much would like to be a part of the effort to bring us out of
this crisis toward better days ahead.
Find out more about our company at www.modusvstudio.com.
EXTERIOR OF HAWTHORNE HILLS HOUSE INTERIOR OF HAWTHORNE HILLS HOUSE

3. V
NEWS AND
MODUS STUDIO
SELECTED WORK FROM 2007-2009
REVIEWS A RECAP OF SOME OF OUR FAVORITE PROJECTS OVER THE LAST 3 YEARS
1ST CHOICE QUBE MORI SUSHI BRIER HOUSE
Seattle , WA
Bellevue , WA Seattle , WA Brier, WA
a fusion restaurant
an acupuncture clinic a lake side sushi restaurant a remodelled 2500 sf home
ARCADIA HOUSE SBARRO
SUSHI ITTO
HUANG RESIDENCE Arcadia , CA Tukwila, WA Tukwila, WA
Taipei, Taiwan
a new 5700sf residence a sushi bar/ restaurant a quick service pizza chain
a condominium interior
BLACK PEBBLE HAWTHORNE HILLS NIGHT MARKET
EXPO PAVILION
Bellevue, WA Seattle, WA Seattle, WA
Shanghai, China
a building material showroom a remodelled 3400sf home an indoor Asian night market
a museum of jade

4. PROJECT
SBARRO
STUDY
Sbarro, the Italian quick service chain restau-
rant, is ubiquitous in American malls and high-
It’s not just way rest stops. Times has changed and so
has the demographics of Sbarro’s core
customers. The store at Westfield Southcenter
has a decidedly younger image than its prede-
fast food... cessors.
The emphasis is on the fact that Sbarro’s food
When’s the last time you drive to the is freshly made with the finest ingredients.
mall just to dine at the food court? Pizza is the main focus, and the pizza dough is
Food courts in American malls have spun and made right in front of the customers.
been a by-product of the shopping We have taken the abstraction of the spinning
experience and have never been pizza dough and used the imagery as inspira-
regarded as dining destinations. tion to design the form of the soffit, which is the
Westfield, one of the world’s largest predominant and anchoring feature of the
developers of retail properties, is entire store. These transparent green strips of
challenging the notion that food glass hover above the store like a cloud, over a
courts are only supporting casts with pizza oven clad in cool metallic mosaics. All
its newest mall in Seatlle – South- the other front of house features are organized
center. With stringent design guide- around the oven, creating a transparent yet
lines for its tenants, its slick modern efficient workflow.
dining terrace becomes the focus of
the entire shopping center. Modus V
Studio was on Westfield’s shortlist of
preferred designers and was
responsible for the designs of two of
the tenant spaces.
V
MODUS STUDIO

5. PROJECT
SUSHI ITTO
STUDY
Already one of the largest Sushi
chain restaurants in the world, Sushi
Itto is starting to establish its pres-
ence in the US. Its store at Westfield
Southcenter is a prototype that is a
model for future stores here.
The design challenge that this
project presents is the fact that it is
open on all four sides. It is a so-
called “island” tenant space. Con-
ceptually we have organized all the
necessary features along a red
ribbon that dance around the kitchen.
There is a strong sculptural quality to
the form so that the store becomes
the center of attention in the dining
terrace. Like a Richard Serra sculp-
ture, the customer moves along the
red ribbon and experience it in differ-
ent ways as it wraps around the
ceiling, frames the menu board,
drops down to become a counter,
sets a stage for the sushi bar.
V
MODUS STUDIO

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Looking at the big picture:
HOME MODUS STUDIO
Remodeling a home the right way
TOPICS
instead of trying to make a profit, remodeling
A couple of years back when the real estate
BAD REMODELS in a piece meal manner maybe OK in the
market was still booming, remodeling a home
short run, but still not going to work long term.
seems like the sure way to make money. So
The lack of a coherent long term plan for
many people who got into the business of
remodeling the entire house can translate into
fixer upper did it the wrong way. When the
very expensive alterations later on. If you’re
market was going up up and up, their
thinking of remodeling your house, the first
mistakes were covered up by the increase in
thing you might want to do is to get an archi-
the property value. While they didn’t make as
tect to look at your home and map out a strat-
much profit as they otherwise could, at least
egy. If you cannot finance the entire thing in
they were not losing their shirt. In 2009, that
one go, you may phase the remodel. But the
is no longer the case.
“master plan” for your home should still be in
place before you start tearing into your walls.
Having spent substantial amount of time on
remodeling our home/office over the last year,
For example, if a couple expecting to have
we have naturally took an interest in what
kids in five years decides to remodel their
others are doing. We visited many open
kitchen today. They may also be thinking of
houses and talked to many home owners on
building an extension and add two bedrooms
remodeling, and we found that many
down the road. They may want to look at their
approached their projects without a well
hot water tank and plumbing capacity and
thought out plan. We realized that many
make sure it will be enough to accommodate
people, perhaps influenced by all the get-
those future plans. They may also want to
rich-quick fixer upper books out there, thinks
think about how to plan their kitchen so that
that you can just buy an old house, replace
when they do add those bedrooms, only
the kitchen with something you find from the
minimal disruption to the existing structure will
home depot, and the property value will magi-
occur.
cally go up by 50%. That is simply not true.
Instead, too many people just go ahead and
A successful remodel for investment is
rip out the cabinets, replace them with new
usually one that is done with the eventual
ones, and call it a day. Only to later find out
occupant/buyer of the home in mind. When a
that half of those cabinets will need to be
potential buyer walks into a house, they
thrown away when an entire wall needs to be
usually look at the house and try to picture
opened up for additional structure and utility.
themselves living in it. They look at the whole
That is money that can be saved easily by
house, not just the recently remodeled kitchen
some smart planning early on. Not to men-
or bathroom. So if the floor plan as a whole
tion that when everything is done years from
doesn’t work, or if the floor is not level, or if the
now, you’ll have a very pleasant home that is
foundation is sagging unevenly, or if you have
carefully laid out, increasing the value if you
a craftsman style kitchen in a mostly Spanish
decide to sell. If you decide to continue living
style home, you will still have a problem
A remodel is not about adding arbitary features to a
in it, you’re not going to have a home that
selling the house at the price you aim for.
house. Always take a comprehensive approach.
looks like a time capsule with a whole bunch
of incoherent elements thrown together.
If you’re remodeling your own home to live in

7. WHAT WE
V
COMMODITIZATION OF GREEN
THINK MODUS STUDIO
MODUS V STUDIO’S TAKE ON GREEN DESIGN
Going green is no longer just a noble idealistic belief that the “tree huggers” have unrelentingly pursued. We now realize that
not only is going green good for our conscience, it is also good for our wallets. Many vendors of green technologies empha-
size the long-term savings for the end-users that going green brings. Meanwhile, energy costs have sky-rocketed in recent
years. Mother Earth only has a limited supply of resources to provide us. It is no secret that we need to cut down on our
energy consumption. Going green is simply a pragmatic approach to our economic problems.
While hybrid technologies for cars are becoming mainstream, we have yet to improve significantly on the way we build build-
ings. Buildings account for 39% of the energy consumption in the US, and a lot of that is wasted due to inefficiencies. Making
a building environmentally friendly and inexpensive to maintain is actually not difficult, and in many ways considered to be the
low-hanging fruit in the green endeavor. Why has green buildings not been pursued with the same rigor as the car industry?
First of all, the building industry is way less consolidated as the car industry. Thus, it is difficult to implement a unified vision
throughout. The solution to this is to commoditize green, making it the industry standard. But to do that we first have to entice
enough people to build green homes in order to achieve the scale needed. Currently, most projects are developed by people
who are not the end-users. The developers do not get to enjoy the long term savings generated by the use of green technolo-
gies, and so they are not willing to bear the initial cost. To entice the developers to focus more on green buildings, we must
try our best to deliver the benefits that they care about – namely savings in construction cost and time, marketing benefits,
political bargaining advantages, public relations advantages, etc. In other words, we must marry profit and purpose as we
pursue green design in buildings.
At Modus V Studio, we have decided to set some benchmarks for our upcoming research and development. We hope to
deliver the processes and the design of an entry level green home that –
1. Costs less than the equivalent of $120/sf in today’s Seattle to construct
2. Takes less than 6 months to complete from the start of design to moving in
3. Allows the owner to pay nothing for electricity
4. Uses 50% less water from the city as a standard home
5. Requires 50% less time and money on maintenance of the home
6. Is healthy, comfortable, and efficient for the owner
7. Is attractive and inspiring aesthetically
These are lofty goals that are not easy to achieve. However, we believe that with an innovative approach that is focused on
the right places, we can make it work. Hopefully, we can gather a motivated group of developers to create homes that are
green, and eventually acheive a critical mass for green homes to become the standard.

8. V
DESIGN MODUS STUDIO
STUFF
A CASE FOR
SCRAPS
It just feels good when you can recycle When I was remodeling my home, some of
something. It is simply beautiful to be the wood planks on a ceiling in the orginal
able to make good use of something house was damaged by water. I had no
that you would otherwise discard or choice but to take all of them down. I was
destroy. The practice of recycling is able to reuse over half of them.
appealing on so many different levels.
It is a process that eliminates wastage,
improving efficiency in a very tangible
way. It is a process that preserves the
memory, but at the same time creates a
forward looking sense of hope. It is a
process that has a purpose but at the
same time profitable. It is a process that
is about the rebirth and continuation of
life. When we remodel a home, is it not
great if we can recycle some materials
salvaged from the demolition and
make something beautiful out of it? First I cut them into strips of random
widths.
Then I stacked the strips up against a wall
to create an effect that was both unique
and attractive.