Natural disaster jolted professional "thinker" Greg Nicholson from the comfort of conventional form to the inspiration of a modern idiom.

Entrepreneur Nicholson, who has earned his living inventing high-tech companies and selling them to investors, lost his Peachtree Hills home to flooding in 2004 after remnants of Hurricane Ivan deluged metro Atlanta.

Becky Stein / Special/special (ENLARGE)

Entrepreneur Greg Nicholson sits in the backyard of his Peachtree Hills home with girlfriend Annie Terrell and dog Griff.

Becky Stein / Special (ENLARGE)

Not every house in Atlanta is a Southern Traditional, Classic Revival or vintage Victorian. The Modern Atlanta tour is showing Atlanta homes that showcase cutting-edge design. The master bedroom and see-through bathroom of Greg Nicholson's Peachtree Hills modern home is shown.

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Flood water from nearby Peachtree Creek inundated his traditional ranch home in Atlanta's classic Peachtree Hills neighborhood.

"It came up three feet in the house and just destroyed it," Nicholson said.

Dazed by catastrophe and faced with the prospect of rebuilding, Nicholson turned to Bryan Russell at Dencity Design to create a new living environment shaped around his singular lifestyle.

Nicholson wanted a new home that would be more open and luminous but immune to the destructive potential of the nearby creek. And he wanted to maximize the home's useful space, ensuring that its architectural appeal served its functional purpose.

But city zoning codes restrained the new home to the exact footprint of the former structure.

What he now inhabits with girlfriend Annie Terrell and puppy Griff is a three-story modern marvel that will be on display during the second annual Modern Atlanta Tour of Homes May 10 and 11.

The 16-home tour caps Design is Human, a week of activity celebrating cutting-edge modernism in art, architecture, fashion and furniture beginning Tuesday.

Elayne DeLeo, one of the founders of event organizer Modern Atlanta, a coalition of designers, artists, architects and modernist fans, said the festivities are intended to establish Atlanta among the nation's design leaders.

"We felt there was a real need to promote Atlanta as a destination of great design," DeLeo said.

Lectures, charity fund-raisers, showings and receptions will also highlight the week's activities.

Nicholson's house, set discreetly below street level on a wooded five-acre lot, exhibits the traits that are attracting a growing modernist following in tradition-drenched Atlanta. Not only is the home a study in functional aesthetics, it also employs a host of environmental features that make it as efficient and Earth-friendly as it is comfortable.

The 25-foot atrium living room glows with natural light from the two-story bank of windows facing the tree-lined lot.

"I wanted it to open up and embrace the landscape," Nicholson said.

But double-paned glass, dual HVAC units and a triple-insulated roof keep interior temperatures regulated and energy consumption low.

Throughout the house, designers employed sustainable natural materials such as cedar paneling and oak floors to echo the natural setting the home's airy design infuses into every interior facet.

Stung once by nature's fury, Nicholson insisted on elevating the home's first floor to protect it from floods.

That lift gives the upper levels a treehouse feel, offering a bird's-eye view of the grounds. Then, he fashioned the exposed ground-level terrace as a sheltered outdoor living area complete with a fireplace and other home comforts. Eventually, he plans to screen the space, making it useful as much as nine months of the year.

The home's open theme continues upstairs in the loft bedroom, which enjoys a wide, leafy view through the same expansive bank of windows that illuminate the living room below. Trees even reflect in the bathroom mirror, thanks to the clear glass divider separating the master bath from the bedroom.

"There's really no hallways, no doors because there's really no need for them," Nicholson noted.

Nicholson chose his decor elements from Roche-Bobois because the spare lines and natural materials of its contemporary furnishings harmonized perfectly with Dencity's architectural tone.

"It matches the elegance plus simplicity I was going for," he said.

Nicholson's commitment to environmental responsibility also challenged designers to think green at every step of the creative process.

"We talked about site lines for a long time," Nicholson said. "We talked about where the sun is all day, so when the sun is highest, that's when it has the least impact on the house."

Architect Russell said his team carefully considered every aspect of the 3,000-square-foot home, from how it sat in the landscape to what it would look like from the street.

"This house really forced us all to think about three-dimensional design," Russell said.

IF YOU GO:

One-day home tour tickets are $30; a two-day home tour pass is $50.

Tickets can be picked up May 9 at the Mason Murer Gallery, 199 Armour Drive, Atlanta.

No credit cards accepted.

Tickets are also available at Design Within Reach, 2451 Peachtree Road, N.E., Atlanta, and Context, 75 John Wesley Dobbs Ave., N.E., Atlanta.

More information, including other Design is Human events and a schedule for the week, is available at www.modern-atlanta.com.