CAST architecture turns 25

December 2024

CAST Architecture is celebrating 25 years of creating contemporary spaces throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle-based firm was founded in 1999 and today has 15 team members.

How Single-Stair Reform Can Help Unlock Incremental Housing

December 2024

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A small reform like legalizing these single-stair buildings would dramatically improve the building potential of our urban neighborhoods in two ways: They would allow for more interesting forms and for more decentralized investment. We could move away from the oblong five-over-one, which requires large lots (and deep pockets), and shift toward a model with a greater variety of people shaping their place.

Houses By Design: Dynamite DADU

December 2024/January 2025

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The DADU features an efficient layout with a bathroom in the front corner of the first floor, allowing the kitchen and dining area to extend the length of the home.

Taller single-staircase buildings could provide more housing options

November 2024

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“It really illustrates the upside of being able to design with one stair, because the project wouldn’t exist if I had to add another,” said Matt Hutchins, a principal at Cast Architecture in Seattle, in an interview about Jansen Court.

Horseshoe house

November / December 2024

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A Methow Valley home welcomes fresh air and sunlight with a courtyard centered design

Facing south to capture the mountain beauty of Washington’s Methow Valley, the horse-shoe shaped home opens to the outdoors with both a broad and sunny front porch and a sheltered rear courtyard. Deep eaves provide help with the heavy winter snow and also provide shade during bright summer days.

Houses By Design: Small and Tudor Style

October 2024

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A 1,225 sq.ft. detached ADU uses a sloping lot to its advantage, featuring a split-level entrance and vaulted ceilings.

This detached accessory dwelling unit design brings forward a model of urban density while providing a private home that shares a courtyard with two other households. The 1225-sq.-ft. modern Tudor-style cottage in a modified split-level design has three bedrooms, one-and-a half baths, flexible utility space, and creative storage.

Hybrid outdoor preschools:
A new solution for the childcare crisis

September 2024
A prototype for a simple support structure enables nature-based preschools to remain open rain, shine, or smoke, allowing them to be more widely and equitably adopted.

By Forrest Murphy, CAST architecture

Read the Article on the DJC Website Here

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A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates significant benefits to young children from nature-based education. Some of these evidence-backed benefits are seemingly self-evident, such as increased physical activity correlating with lower levels of childhood obesity and enhanced motor-skills development. Constantly changing weather is a direct stimulus that develops resilience and self-regulation. Regular exposure to nature is widely recognized as reducing stress levels in people of all ages.

AIA Washington Council 2024 Civic Design Awards

September 2024

View the Project on the AIA Website Here

Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Hatchery & Beach Shelter, Kingston, WA
Honorable Mention
2024 AIA/WA Civic Design Awards
Client: Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe

Located on the beach at Point Julia on land occupied by the Tribe since time immemorial, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Hatchery and Beach Shelter combines pragmatic uses with highly symbolic content. Salmon fishing is central to both the Tribe’s traditional identity and its contemporary outlook. This project recognizes the cultural importance of both the place and the program, allowing these activities to flourish in the 21st century.

extra space

August 2024

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“Knowing that Seattle has been on the forefront of maximizing ADU construction, I turned to the City’s ADUniverse website as a resource. One handy tool… there is a list of pre-approved ADU plans, and that list featured our ideal model — CAST architecture’s Cedar Cottage.”
— Homeowner, Bree O’Brien

A GATHERING PLACE - the berm house

July/August 2024

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A Centerpiece for a Cohousing Community in Washington's Methow Valley is a Sustainable Home to Share

“We wanted a community with all ages, incomes, and life experiences that could learn from each other,” he says. Whittaker turned to Seattle’s CAST architecture—a firm with a strong reputation for creating affordable housing—to design the new McKinney Ridge community. Matt Hutchins, CAST principal, helped with the master plan, including one special home at the heart of the community.”

New zoning laws are inspiring builders to get creative with nontraditional housing

May 13, 2024

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CAST’S Spokane six…
The sixplex design offers several advantages over larger apartments, Hutchins says. Instead of just one wall being open to the outdoors, the sixplex will have windows on three sides of each unit, allowing every room plentiful views of the outdoors.

multigenerational living

May 5, 2024

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Architect Stefan Hampden of CAST Architecture added this 560-square-foot accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to the Windermere home his father-in-law, Jim Nelson, bought with his wife in the 1980s. The vaulted ceiling in the living room mirrors that of the main home's living room, but Nelson's favorite space just might be the heated porch outside (to the right), where he can hang out with his friends and watch TV through the big windows (there's an outdoor speaker).

Op-Ed: Building the Seattle we want with the Growth we’ll have

April 29, 2024

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Seattle is growing. How do we make room for new housing and create the kind of city we want to live in?

Houzz Kitchen of the Week: Beer, Shuffleboard and Pizza
Bring the Fun

April 18, 2024

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Entertaining features and a warm industrial style create a lively atmosphere in this revamped Craftsman bungalow space.

As Spokane smashes building permit records, a planned South Hill sixplex offers hints at the city's dense future

April 4, 2024

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The Spokane Six is designed to fit on any traditionally sized housing parcel, so once the first one on Grand Boulevard is finished, Hutchins' firm hopes to build more across the city.

The Spokane Six is an example of what's become known as "middle housing."

It's a category that includes duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and other small, low-intensity developments that sit in between single-family homes and large apartment buildings.

Middle housing serves a lot of people's needs and is "generally more accessible, a little bit more affordable and a higher quality of living than a big apartment building," Hutchins says.

Low Profile, High Ideals
Super efficient Berm House reflects a vision of community

Spring 2024

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The Berm House is a multi-functional space designed to meet the needs of an evolving community. It celebrates the community's connection to the larger landscape of the Methow Valley and the site's agricultural heritage.

ADUs the Perfect Housing Solution

March 2024

You can find it on Amazon Here

CAST’s Cedar Cottage, featured in the book, is a City of Seattle Pre-approved Plan for Backyard Cottages.

UNLOCK MIDDLE HOUSING WITH PARKING REFORM

March 18, 2024

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ON SMALL LOTS, PARKING CAN BE A BIG PROBLEM

A Tribute to Resilience: Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s new salmon hatchery shines

Spring 2024

Read the Article Here / View PDF of Article Here

View the entire Magazine Here

The architecture incorporates traditional indigenous Coast Salish design elements, including a shed roof, cedar plank siding and concrete pilings submerged deep in the beach. The new hatchery was designed specifically with rising sea levels in mind.

Will Seattle's new growth plan produce enough housing for newcomers?

March 6, 2024

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On the other hand, architect Matt Hutchins said the plan doesn't change low-density neighborhoods enough. "I think this is a missed opportunity. Everyone is feeling the housing crunch," he said, adding that Seattle's only introducing a small increment of housing to existing neighborhoods.

An uncertain forecast for middle housing

February 29, 2024

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Read the Article on the DJC Website Here

Cities and states are making room for ADUs, townhouses, cottage clusters and other denser housing on residential lots, but not yet fast enough to meet housing demand.

It's time for Minnesota to allow taller buildings with a single staircase

January 2, 2024

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Seattle, which has grappled with extreme housing shortage and affordability challenges for years, allows single-staircase buildings up to six stories, with sprinkler systems and other restrictions for fire safety.

Pictured: CAST's Jansen Court

CAST named to 2024 Mountain Living List: Top Architects

January / February 2024

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Mountain Living compiled this catalog of architects to recognize the top talent in the Mountain West based on recommendations they received from photographers, homeowners, architects, designers, and their staff.

Give Middle Housing a shot!

December 3, 2023

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Matt Hutchins’ comprehensive discussion of the Washington state Model Code for Middle Housing and how we can have it produce more housing in line with HB1110.

"I have analyzed the real world implications of how it would regulate new housing and how we can tweak it to better support the creation of townhouses, flats, and infill development." -- Matt Hutchins, AIA

Spokane permanently relaxes regulations allowing more multiplexes and development flexibility

November 22, 2023

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“It’s been kind of a revelation,” said Matt Hutchins, an architect who sits on the Seattle Planning Commission and is working to develop a six-plex on Grand Boulevard that would have been illegal to build two years ago.

“What’s happening from a zoning perspective is something that is honestly not happening anywhere else in Washington, and maybe not even in the United States,” Hutchins added. “It’s really exceptional.”

Mixed-use development proposed in Winthrop

November 23, 2023

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The proposed RiversMeet development would include residential, commercial and office space at the former Methow Conservancy headquarters site on Riverside Avenue in Winthrop.

Housing advocates weigh in on approved Spokane multi-family building ordinance

November 21, 2023

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Matt Hutchins with CAST architecture in Seattle is already planning on opening a door for at least six Spokane families. He’s developing plans for a six-plex off of Grand Blvd. He said the existing home is vacant and will be torn down to be rebuilt and accommodate six households.

Living in Living Color

October 22, 2023

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Bright Spots in History - CAST's Clubhouse

THE CLUBHOUSE. With its soaring butterfly roof, extra-wide red eaves and sunshine-yellow back entrance, this renovated home (now with a new second floor) looks through a colorful lens at a Phinney Ridge backyard filled with greenery galore and a waterfall that obscures street noise. (Benjamin Benschneider / The Seattle Times, 2016)

'Berm House' is a new centerpiece for growing Methow Valley community

October 11, 2023

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CAST's response is a unique, low-profile house that expertly frames surrounding views and incorporates innovative sustainability solutions and technology, including CLT and passive house design principles.

Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce

October 7, 2023

Project of the Week: Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe Hatchery & Beach Shelter

The project shows the tribe’s history of salmon fishing and rearing in the area while continuing those traditions in a modern facility.

A Horseshoe-Shaped Cabin in the Pacific Northwest Brings the Outside In

August, 2023

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The courtyard-hugging layout of the single-story home in Washington’s Methow Valley is truly something special: a warm, welcoming architectural delight nestled in the thick of a pine forest, yet flooded with light.

An earth-sheltered form fit for weather extremes

August 2023

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Methow Valley home relies on Passive House principles, superinsulation, advanced air sealing, cross-laminated timber panels, and a green roof to meet sustainability goals.

This tiny home built in a Seattle backyard was designed to maximize sunlight in one of the rainiest cities in America

July 2023

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By Kelsey Neubauer, Matt Hutchins contributing

There have been a growing number of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, popping up in backyards in Seattle. Insider spoke with Matt Hutchins, one of the architects designing these new abodes, to get a sense of what some of these units are like.

State Model Code for Middle Housing is Missing Enough Housing, By Matt Hutchins (Guest Contributor)

July 2023

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"Now that Washington State’s Middle Housing bill (HB1110) has been signed into law, the next question is what implementation will look like — what kind of housing and where."

Budget Breakdown: They DIYed a $212K ADU—and Loved It So Much That They Moved Right In

July 2023

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"A Seattle couple built their own backyard house with a city-sponsored design—and then rented out their old home on the property to friends."

How will ‘missing middle’ zoning impact Seattle housing?

June 2023

View the Article on Crosscut Here

"Enter missing middle housing: two- to six-unit homes that provide greater density than single-family houses."

Bringing Light and Life to a Lake Washington Redesign

March 23, 2023

View the Article on AIA Here

Tim Hammer and his team at CAST got creative with a plan that overcame the barriers and resulted in a design that fits the family’s lifestyle and taste, and makes the most of their home’s stunning surroundings.

1912 Craftsman Renovation

June 2023

View the Article on Fine Homebuilding Here

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The renovation team figured out how to maintain historical details while updating this home to meet current needs.

A “People Place” By Design

April 2023

View the Article on ISSUU Here

The Mazama Public House was Conceived with Community in Mind

“The long communal tables were always indicative of the way we were thinking about the place. You come in and you’re part of the community. You share a table and suddenly you’re in conversation with a person you’ve never met before. It’s a fun opportunity.”
-- Stefan Hampden, CAST architecture

ADU construction now outpacing single-family developments in Seattle

April 10, 2023

View the Article on Archinect Here

Citywide, two-thirds of all new single-family designs built last year included at least one ADU in their construction.

Small Apartments from 100 years ago offer townhome alternative

March 28, 2023

View the Article on KUOW / NPR Here

Hutchins explains why it's important to bring four- to six-unit buildings like the Cowboy Hotel back, rather than just building more townhomes.

“Because they’re more efficient," he says. "Less stairways, they’re cheaper to build." Second, "because they’re relatively compact, they’re more energy efficient." And third, "because of that compact form, there’s actually more space in the back to preserve tree canopy and a garden in the backyard.”