What's it like to live inside an iconic house-museum? These impeccably-preserved residences highlight the work of six great modernist architects from the 20th century.
Walter Gropius wanted the Hagerty House, his first commission in the United States, to be as close to the sea as possible, so he sited the structure a precarious 20 feet from the shore and let the setting dictate the design. The house's simplicity had great appeal to Jan Sasseen, the current owner. From walls to rugs to furniture, "pretty much everything is white," she says. "When I was decorating, I picked the most basic things I could find. Nothing had details or frills."
A new owner with a light touch has kept Marcel Breuer's 1959 Hooper House II a marvel of the mid-20th century whose life will extend well into the 21st. Resident Richard North only modified the idyllic, suburban Baltimore retreat with a few contemporary design moves: replacing the roof, putting glass doors on the fireplaces in the children’s playroom and the living room, considering taking down part of a wall to add a pass-through window to the skylighted kitchen (but later thought better of it), adding garage doors to the carport, and converting the adjoining stables to make more garage space.
Within the minimal shell of Mies van der Rohe’s design for Lafayette Park, the eclecticism and vibrancy of this renovated home is all the more apparent. Resident Toby Barlow says, "Mies's floor-to-ceiling windows make the spaces feel open, while at the same time the canopy of trees makes you feel protected. It's a private, quiet, green oasis within spitting distance of the freeway, and you'd never know it."
Docomomo US announces the winners of this year's Modernism in America Awards. Each project showcases exemplary modern restoration techniques, practices, and ideas.
Today, we kicked off this year’s annual Dwell on Design at the LA Convention Center, which will continue through Sunday, June 26th. Though we’ve been hosting this extensive event for years, this time around is particularly special.
By straightening angles, installing windows, and adding vertical accents, architect Aaron Ritenour brought light and order to an irregularly shaped apartment in the heart of Athens, Greece.
From the bones of a neglected farmstead in rural Scotland emerges a low-impact, solar-powered home that’s all about working with what was already there.
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