A scenic view of modern houses on a grassy hillside with tall trees in the background. The houses have large windows and balconies. The foreground has tall grass and two Adirondack chairs with umbrellas.
Modern house in the woods with trees on either side and a gravel driveway leading up to the house, which has large windows and a metal roof.
Interior of a dining room with a large wooden table and chairs, overlooking a waterfront view through glass sliding doors, with outdoor seating on a balcony and a sunset sky.
Modern kitchen with black dining table and six chairs, white cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, pendant lights, and large windows showing greenery outside.
Wooden cabins in a forested area with tall trees and autumn foliage.
A modern house with a glass facade and gray roof, partially visible among leafless trees, with a mountain in the background under cloudy skies.
View of a modern house's patio with outdoor furniture, surrounded by trees with fall foliage.
Living room with large open window overlooking a body of water with boats, trees, and a sunset sky.
Living room with large floor-to-ceiling windows showing trees outside, white sectional sofa with pillows, black entertainment center with fireplace, minimalist decor, wood accents, and tiled flooring.
Modern wooden house with an outdoor patio area, surrounded by trees and purple flowering plants, during sunset.
Modern open-concept living room and kitchen with high ceilings, large windows, and contemporary furniture, including an orange armchair, white lounge chair, and a glass coffee table.
Metal sculptures of four herons standing on a large rock in an outdoor garden, with a wooden building and windows in the background.
Interior view of a room with a white dining table, wooden chairs, a beige armchair, and a large window showing a green outdoor landscape with trees and hills.
A spacious outdoor patio with seating, surrounded by trees with fall foliage, attached to a modern house with large windows.
A large house with a peaked roof and extensive windows, situated by a body of water, with trees and a forested hill in the background, under a cloudy sky with a tornado.
shoshugi ban aka charred wood siding aka suyaki
timeless waterfornt cabin

OTO Design is a boutique, BIPOC- and women-owned design studio creating custom spaces, from single-family residences to hospitality venues to spiritual centers.

A space is a container for human experience, and what it’s asked to hold changes with every place and every people. So we begin by listening. Every community already knows how a space should feel, and how someone should feel when they walk in, whatever their relationship to the building itself. Our work is translating that knowing into the physical: how people move, gather, and linger, how energy flows through a room, and how color, texture, and touch make a place felt in the body. We don’t arrive with a signature look or the answer. We lead with curiosity.

We take on a limited number of projects each year, by design, so every client receives our direct, sustained attention from first conversation to final walk-through. Each project is shaped around its site, its climate, and the people it will hold, whether that’s a primary residence, a vacation home, an ADU, a multi-family dwelling, a restaurant, or a place of gathering. As an independent Lindal design partner, we also bring the flexibility of Lindal’s post-and-beam system to residential work, paired with our own site-responsive, passive-design approach.

From the San Juan Islands to California’s coast and throughout the Pacific Northwest, we’ve had the honor of walking alongside our clients from the first spark of a dream to the space they finally call their own.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have, big or small.
The interior of a house under construction with wooden framing and a view of a lake outside.
The interior of a house under construction with wooden framing and a view of a lake outside.

Our Philosophy

Shaped by Your Stories

No two communities live the same way, so no two spaces should feel the same. We spend real time understanding how people actually move through a day or an evening: where they gather, where they retreat, what they’ve loved about places they’ve been before. Then we let that shape the design. A family kitchen and a neighborhood bar ask very different things of a room, so we start by learning what yours is asked to hold.

Listening to the Site

Before anything, we study the site: its topography, its light, its prevailing winds, its native materials, and building traditions. Passive design isn’t an add-on for us; it’s the starting point. Orientation, shade, cross-ventilation, and thermal mass shape the plan before aesthetics do, because a space that works with its climate needs less to keep its people comfortable.

Built to Last

We choose sustainably sourced, durable materials and build within systems engineered for longevity, not trend cycles. For residential work, that includes Lindal’s post-and-beam structure. A well-built space should still feel right in thirty years, not just in the renderings, and it should be good to touch.

Founder & Creative Director

Sakkshi trained in India and has worked across South Asia, Germany, and the United States, on projects all over. She has also spent over a decade working within the Lindal system. Through every place and every kind of project, one thing has stayed constant: the best spaces don’t start with a floor plan. They start with a conversation. Her work is less about drawing what a client asks for and more about understanding what they actually need.

That instinct didn’t start as professional training; it’s how she has always understood space. Long before she had the vocabulary for passive design, she understood it through a cultural lens: an inherited sense that a building either settles a nervous system or unsettles it. That is what good design is, at its root. It’s desi, it’s personal, and it’s still what shapes every project she takes on.

That’s part of why OTO Design stays small, not for scale, but for depth: the ability to sit with a family’s story, or a community’s, long enough to get it right. A space should feel intuitively right the moment you walk in, grounded in the lives it holds and the land it sits on.

Sakkshi, Founder & Creative Director

Co-Creating Partners

Being a boutique studio doesn't mean working alone; it means being deliberate about who we bring in. Every project is a chance to co-create with partners who share our passion for site, craft, and creativity.

  • The image features the logo of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on an orange background, with the foundation's name written in stylized, thin, orange letters inside a white rectangle.

    Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

    Lindal homes holds an exclusive licensing agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to adapt a curated collection of Wright's iconic residential designs for contemporary construction, updated for today's building codes, zoning requirements, and modern living without sacrificing the spatial genius that made them timeless.

    OTO Design works in collaboration with the Lindal team to help clients in our region bring their Frank Lloyd Wright vision to life from plan selection through design development and into the ground.

  • Construction workers in safety vests and helmets installing metal grates on a floor with some sections labeled 'STORAGE' in white.

    Schaefer Construction

    is a Seattle-based general contractor serving the Pacific Northwest, known for its technical rigor and exacting attention to design, detail, and client communication. Their residential portfolio spans new construction and renovation at the high end of the market, with a track record of delivering complex projects on time and on budget, consistently demonstrating attention to detail.

  • Logo of OM Studio Design LLC with black text on a light yellow background.

    OM Studio

    OM Studio is a design practice rooted in the organic architecture tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright, based in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the same valley where Wright built Taliesin. That lineage shapes their approach: architecture that belongs to its site, with a geometric and spatial sensibility that runs through every decision.

    Within the Lindal system, OM Studio specializes in original designs under the Designer Series. The process always begins with constraints: site, program, budget, code, and finds the intersection where the most efficient and considered solution emerges.

  • Lindal Homes logo

    Lindal Homes

    Since 1945, Lindal Homes has been designing and delivering custom post-and-beam homes across North America and beyond, backed by the industry's only Lifetime Structural Warranty. Their system of precision-engineered components in premium Western red cedar makes it possible to build architecturally considered homes on challenging sites, with a level of design flexibility that conventional construction rarely achieves.

    OTO Design is an independent Lindal design partner. That relationship gives our clients access to Lindal's full catalog of architect-designed plans, their proprietary Elements customization platform, and a manufacturing and delivery process refined to the last detail.

  • Logo for 2 Atara design + construction featuring a black and white illustration of a rat next to the company name.

    2atara Design + Construction

    2atara design + construction is a Bainbridge Island–based general contractor focused on building with the future in mind. Committed to projects that honor design integrity and sustainable practices, we prioritize resource preservation while delivering thoughtful, well-crafted construction.

    Through collaboration, exploration, and innovation, we execute projects that reflect our honest vision to create a better world.

  • A stylized letter 'M' logo with dark and light blue accents.

    Modern Dwelling

    Modern Dwellings brings decades of general contracting experience to the Lindal system, with dozens of Lindal homes completed under its direction. They work with OTO Design as a GC consultant, lending that construction fluency to projects from the drawing side: constructability review, cost and sequencing insight, and guidance on how the Lindal materials package translates from plans to a finished home.

Some Testimonials

“From the onset, my concerns were reducing the size of an existing design to accommodate the footprint of my location,” Wood said. “The results were both timely and exceeded my expectations. The constant oversight of the project continually reflected their professionalism and knowledge. I had little awareness of it but certainly learned to appreciate and completely rely on them. I would unequivocally recommend them to spearhead an analogous project to any and all and to use my name at will. I couldn’t be more pleased with her efforts on my behalf.” — Richard Wood

 

“Their knowledge and passion for work were present during every interaction. We had a much better experience than I had expected majorly as she always kept up in a constant loop and was positively motivated! She always had a solution to any issue that popped up. And if you have built a home before, you know that’s unavoidable. Our communication was always very good, and we had detailed discussions of the pros and cons before any decision we made. Her attention to detail was crucial in finishing our house; not only was she able to organize and coordinate with everyone's schedules, but she had the foresight to anticipate what would come up next. Sakkshi cares so much about the quality of her work, we can't imagine having a better experience with anyone else.” — Nikki & Evan Welch

 

“With your help, we are now living in an incredibly beautiful unique Puget Sound waterfront home. This project presented numerous challenges related to restrictions imposed in permitting, limitations of the existing structure, site access, and probably most of all, my expectations. Sakkshi always took time to listen and understand my vision for the project and at the same time was very good at helping me manage my ideas. With any project, there are changes and frustrations in the course of construction that at times seem overwhelming but Sakkshi was on top of it, attending on-site, coordinating with suppliers and contractors, keeping the project moving forward. Even more than her skills as an architect and project manager, it was Sakkshi's designer eye and a sense that gave us the home I was dreaming of. Thank You.” — Dan Valente

 

“We could hardly be more thrilled with our recently built Lindal Cedar home which, for the time being, is used as our second home. Primarily, it's a super pleasant lake cabin getaway to divide our time to and from Tacoma. The current blast of frigid temps has not hampered our comfort in the beautifully insulated home with its efficient ductless heating system & electric fireplace. Even the floors stay warm and the Milgard windows plus quality Stanley doors refuse to be even the slightest bit drafty. TJ and I will forever be grateful for your expertise in design consultation along with all the effort you put into bringing the project to fruition. You are a true professional in addition to being a wonderful person on all levels.” — Vickie and Timothy Pratt

OTO Design is an independent Lindal design partner