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Published by Artifice Books, £29.95
Celebrating a decade in the business, UK-based real estate agency The Modern House has launched an eponymous book exploring its most extraordinary properties, from Su and Richard Rogers’ modernist Wimbledon landmark to apartments in the Barbican and beyond. (The company’s fitting tagline: ‘Selling Britain’s finest modern architecture’).
The Modern House was co-founded in 2005 by former architecture/design journalists Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd (himself the grandson of modernist architect Frederick Gibberd), and together have captured a niche corner of the property market.
Leading with an introductory essay by Wallpaper* editor-at-large Jonathan Bell and published by Artifice Books, the new tome is divided into four themes – town houses, conversions, country houses and apartments. ‘Rather than being an exhaustive survey, this book instead offers our own distinctive snapshot of what it means to live in a modern way in Britain,’ explain Gibberd and Hill in the books foreword.
To wit, the book is an ode to Britain’s remarkable modernist architecture, spanning homes completed in the 1930s until as recently as two years ago. Alongside the usual suspects (London’s seminal Isokon Building, for one), The Modern House also hones in on lesser known architectural gems, as well as younger architects such as Zoe Chan and Merlin Eayrs (their striking Design Award-shortlisted Herringbone House in Dalston marks a new sort of British modernism).
Whether you’re in the market for a starchitect-designed home (Carl Turner's 'ice cube' house is back on the market for a cool £1.595m) or are simply a design-savvy tourist, The Modern House is an indispensible compendium of England’s most enviable residences and interiors.
Glazed walls fill Manor Way's reception rooms with light. The dining room adjoins the kitchen, a near 50ft long room forming one 'wing' of the plan. Photography: French + Tye
Glazed walls fill Manor Way's reception rooms with light. The dining room adjoins the kitchen, a near 50ft long room forming one 'wing' of the plan. Photography: French + Tye
Barbican Estate, by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, 1975. London's Barbican is bravura piece of placemaking, with bridges, ramps and endless staircases creating a multiplicity of routes through the concrete and brick complex. Photography: Neil Perry
Barbican Estate, by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, 1975. London's Barbican is bravura piece of placemaking, with bridges, ramps and endless staircases creating a multiplicity of routes through the concrete and brick complex. Photography: Neil Perry
Roof Garden Apartment, by Richard Rogers and Tonkin Liu, 2002. The upper floor of this apartment – a radical addition of a steel structure above a brick warehouse – is given over to a double-height living area with expansive views of London's skyline. Photography: Andy Stagg
Roof Garden Apartment, by Richard Rogers and Tonkin Liu, 2002. The upper floor of this apartment – a radical addition of a steel structure above a brick warehouse – is given over to a double-height living area with expansive views of London's skyline. Photography: Andy Stagg
Slip House, by Carl Turner Architects, 2012. When first constructed, Slip House stood alone in the centre of its plot, accentuating the canted arrangement of the stacked floors and the stark simplicity and translucency of the vertical glass fins that clad the upper floors. Since its completion, a new project by the same architects has been built alongside it. Photography: Tim Crocker
Slip House, by Carl Turner Architects, 2012. When first constructed, Slip House stood alone in the centre of its plot, accentuating the canted arrangement of the stacked floors and the stark simplicity and translucency of the vertical glass fins that clad the upper floors. Since its completion, a new project by the same architects has been built alongside it. Photography: Tim Crocker
Inside Slip House, the floor, ceiling and staircase are formed from polished concrete, paired with white walls and sliding doors built from whitened birch ply. Photography: Tim Crocker
Inside Slip House, the floor, ceiling and staircase are formed from polished concrete, paired with white walls and sliding doors built from whitened birch ply. Photography: Tim Crocker
