The top living spaces around the world, as chosen by our podcast guests
“What are your top three living spaces in the world?” asks our co-founder Matt Gibberd on The Modern House Podcast. Since its launch in 2020, creative thinkers and cultural tastemakers have taken us near and far with their choices – from renowned mid-century masterpieces in major cities to little-known architectural gems in quiet corners of the countryside. It’s been quite the journey, but after three seasons and 26 episodes, we’re closing this chapter. We’re delighted to annouce that in the new year, we’ll be bringing you a brand-new series with a more personal premise. This time, Matt will be speaking to his subjects about a home from their past, present and future. Stay tuned to hear more details about The Modern House Podcast 2.0, coming very soon…
But first, to mark the end of this era, we’re highlighting 24 of the best living spaces around the world as chosen by our guests, starting with episode one. We’ve kept this particular list to residential buildings that you can visit, but to hear our guests talk about even more inspiring places – including a Roman castle and an artfully crafted treehouse in Paris – be sure to listen to our old episodes. In the meantime, read on to discover our guests’ reasons for choosing each place, making convincing cases as to why you should add them to your bucket list too.
1. Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, England
“Kettle’s Yard is a gallery but the part of it that I love the most is the house,” says Rosa Park. The brains behind both Cereal – which she co-founded with her her husband, photographer Rich Stapleton – and Francis Gallery has a soft spot for the former residence of Jim Ede, a curator at the Tate. “More than what it looks like, it’s about the spirit and what he stood for. You could spend half a day in there and just sit on the couch and look at the art,” she continues, citing a painting positioned on the bathroom floor as a particularly irreverent piece of curation. “There’s so much wit and humour. As a curator, I’m infinitely inspired by Ede and Kettle’s Yard.”
2. Isokon Building, London, England
Tom Broughton’s top living space in the world is his own home within the Grade I-listed Isokon building, designed by Well Coates in 1934. “It’s particularly nice when it’s raining,” says the founder of Cubitts about the apartment he bought from The Modern House in 2018. “You can hear the patter of the rain on the flat roof. It feels incredibly cosy. There’s something about the warmth of the wood, the building’s soft curves and the natural light.” While you can’t tour his wood-panelled space, you can visit the gallery housed within the Isokon – UK’s first modernist housing block.
3. Le Corbusier’s Cabanon, Côte d'Azur, France
Tom’s second choice is another wood-panelled modernist marvel: Le Corbusier’s Cabanon in the south of France. “It’s a tiny summer house that Le Corbusier built in 1952. I think he spent every summer there until his death.” (The architect died of a heart attack while swimming off the coast when staying there.) The minuscule building was designed with the warmer months in mind, which is why it has no bathroom or kitchen. Instead, Le Corbusier favoured washing outdoors and dining alfresco at local restaurants. It might be small, but the Cabanon makes a big impression. As Tom puts it: “It has such a strong sense of personality.”
4. La Fábrica, Sant Just Desvern, Spain
“It’s extraordinary,” says designer Jonathan Tuckey about La Fábrica by Richard Bofill. It was 1973 when the architect first came across a working cement factory – and his timing couldn’t have been better. It was set to be deactivated the following month, providing him the chance to snap it up and convert it into an expansive home and studio. “I chose it because it really embodies the ambition, idea and potential of reuse,” explains Jonathan, who has a particular a penchant for seeing pre-existing buildings overhauled (just look to his own archive of work for proof). Today, the 31,000sq m space remains home to Bofill’s practice, Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), and his family.
5. Schindler House, LA, United States
“It really is one of the most extraordinary buildings,” says the artist and writer Edmund de Waal. “It was designed by an architect in exile.” He’s talking about Rudolf Schindler, who ran away from his home in Vienna, Austria, to work with Frank Lloyd Wright in North America. “He ends up in California,” Edmund continues, “and wants to build a house for himself and his family. What he does is absolutely revolutionary.” Schindler House is a single-storey structure constructed from a raw palette and is a series of spaces rather than closed rooms. “And the beauty of that,” Edmund explains, “is that the walls are unadorned. The concrete is barely polished, the wood is local Californian redwood. All the materials are true materials.”
6. Red House, London, England
“I’ve got a huge fondness for this house, which, again, is about trying new things out,” says Edmund of his second choice, the Red House in south-east London. It was built in “the orchards of Kent” before the area became the suburb of Bexleyheath. It was built by Philip Webb for William Morris, major proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement, in 1859. “This is about architecture as a craft. The bricks are beautiful. The leading in the stained-glass windows is stunning. The wood has been well thought through. All those things matter,” Edmund adds. “It’s still radical – it’s always going to be radical.”
Red House was also selected by Margaret Howell, who was similarly taken by its materiality. “Everything was purpose-made for that one house. It’s quite magical,” she says.
7. Eames House, California, America
“This is perhaps a super obvious choice, but I couldn’t not put it down,” says designer Faye Toogood. Eames House was built in 1949 by the American modernist pioneers Charles and Ray Eames. Although it was originally designed for the Los Angeles Case Study House Program – a series of homes made using materials and technologies developed during World War II – the couple made it their home after it was finished. “I was completely moved in a way that I wasn’t expecting,” Faye continues, recalling her visit to Case Study House No. 8, as it’s also known. In particular, she admires the way in which the Eameses curated their home. “They didn’t fill their space with objects of show,” she says, “They filled it with things that made them smile.”
8. Lunuganga, Bentota, Sri Lanka
In 1949 the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa purchased a derelict rubber plantation, which he spent the next 50 years slowly reworking into a house – and what Faye calls a garden of Eden. “It’s not about colourful flowers or neat borders. It’s an assemblage of tropical plants and texture.” For her, the allure of Lunuganga lies in the way in which the house and garden seamlessly blend together. Perhaps this is most evident in the sunroom, Faye’s favourite space in the house. “It’s just effortless. When you sit there, you’re presented with this beautiful tree. It has these serpent-like branches and huge leaves – and it has been planted right up against the house. It’s so unexpected.”
9. Charleston, East Sussex, England
“I’ve picked Charleston because I feel that this is now the house that’s the closest to how I want to live. It was the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and they had the most extraordinary life,” says Faye of her third choice, the two artists’ late 16th-century farmhouse that doubled as the hangout of the Bloomsbury Group. “Friends, lovers, partners, academics, thinkers, writers, artists – everybody would come and stay with them. They described it as an ‘elastic house’ – essentially anything went.” Life at Charleston was riotous and free – and so were the interiors. “Everything is covered in thick layers of paint in the most amazing colours,” Faye says. “I’d love to do a study of how many colours are in that house.”
10. Barbican, London, England
Having sold his old home through The Modern House, artist Michael Craig-Martin was determined to move to the Barbican, Chamberlin, Powell & Bon’s sprawling concrete estate in the City of London – and he succeeded. “I was there for a few minutes and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll take it,'” he says recalling his first visit to his flat with the estate agent. “The couple who had it before me had an architect redo the interior. It had been completely gutted. It’s so open that you can look right through the apartment from one end to the other. I have changed a few things but the essence of it is exactly how I bought it.” Living there has confirmed his love for the Barbican. “It’s an architectural masterpiece – the whole place. It’s absolutely unbelievably wonderful.
“The Barbican always felt like this oasis in the middle of all these skyscrapers,” says director Reggie Yates, who also selected it. “I loved it because you have the beautiful ponds and outdoor space that is open to everyone.” Meanwhile, the inside made him see concrete in a different way. “I think the Barbican is a huge part of why I have always wanted concrete in my home. It is a soft material if treated in the right way.”
11. Farnsworth House, Chicago, USA
“It’s the holy grail. It’s the most sublime space I’ve visited,” says John Pawson. “It’s right up there with the pyramids.” The building in question is Farnsworth House: the mid-century masterpiece Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed for his then partner, Edith Farnsworth. When the two first struck up a relationship, “she was looking for an architect to build a modest house on a bit of land she’d bought,” John explains. “Little did she know she was getting the finest architect of the millennium to do it.” Constructed between 1949 and 1951, the single-storey, steel-and-glass pavilion was designed to sit above the ground – only eight columns touch the earth – so that it’s light on the landscape. “Everything about it, to the last screw, is thought out,” John adds. “It’s perfection.”
12. Life House, Llanbister, Wales
Life House, designed and selected by John Pawson, lies “right in the middle of Wales”. It was commissioned by Alain de Botton of that employs well-known architects to design beautiful holiday rentals. In this case, the brief was to make “a contemplative house”. It’s formed of Danish bricks – black for the exterior and white for the interior – and was inspired by the architecture of Benedictine monks. The three bedrooms “are much bigger than normal because Alain wanted them to have specific identities”. One has an emphasis on music, “so we put in a valve stereo with big speakers and a playlist curated by my son Cai,” John continues. “There’s a reading suite – Alain did the library, he chose the titles. And the last one is about bathing, so we did a more spacious bathroom with a sky shower and a bath from where you could watch the moors.”
13. Dot Cottage, Rye, England
Dot Cottage is a higgeldy-piggeldy terraced house in the medieval town of Rye, East Sussex, that was selected by the singer-songwriter Paloma Faith. “It’s just so sweet,” she says. Inside, salvaged materials have been used to thoughtfully outfit the house – for instance, “the kitchen is made out of old doors. It’s very tasteful and I love the colour combinations.” Looking around the house, guests will notice that the its owners have painted polka dots on its furniture, which sits alongside various spotty dog-shaped ornaments. It’s certainly one of the more maximalist places on this list, with its floral textiles, ornate vintage furniture and vibrantly painted walls. Being there, Paloma says, “is like being in a cuddle”.
14. Villa Savoye, Poissy, France
In Poissy, a peaceful suburb of Paris, lies one of Le Corbusier’s most influential buildings: Villa Savoye, which was designed in 1929. “It’s an incredible monument to modernism,” says designer Jay Osgerby. “It sits like a white sculpture in the middle of woodland. During that period, the world was all about the automobile – and the car represented the future.” As Jay explains, the house was designed with the driver in mind, who would venture down to Poissy from the French capital and be able to spin around under the pilotis – one of Le Corbusier’s five points of architecture, which he delivered with this house. The other four are a flat-roof terrace, an open-plan living space, long horizontal windows and a free façade. “It’s an absolutely stunning object,” Jay continues.
15. Trellick Tower, London, England
Ernő Goldfinger took the founding principles of modernism and used them on a grand scale with Trellick Tower in Notting Hill, says Jay, who previously had a flat there. “I have never lived anywhere like that in my life,” he says. “The building is a piece of genius. It’s very narrow and very tall – and its narrowness permits each flat to have at least two aspects,” meaning they are incredibly bright with far-reaching views. Meanwhile, all the “noisy stuff” – from the lifts to the bins – sits in a separate tower, which connects to the main building via a corridor on every third floor. “It’s super smart.” But Trellick Tower does have a few drawbacks, Jay reveals. “It sways in the wind. On a windy day, if you run a bath the water will slosh from one side to the other,” he laughs, “but it’s an amazing place to live.”
16. Falling Water, Pennsylvania, United States
“It isn’t easy to get to,” pre-warns Clare Wright of the journey one must endure to reach Falling Water, the modernist house designed by Frank Lloyd Wight in the 1930s – which includes a 19-hour drive from Pennsylvania, its nearest airport. But she promises it’s worth it. “The house looks fabulous at all times of the year. It’s built on a waterfall and it’s set into trees. In the autumn, everything is yellow and gold, but it also looks terrific in the snow, spring and summer. The seasons there are so powerfully reflected in the landscape.” The waterfall, with its cantilevered rocks that inspired the shape of the house, is “fabulous”, says Clare. “It’s very good for the soul.”
17. Experimental House, Jyväskylä, Finland
There was a time when Experimental House would have been as much of a pilgrimage to get to as Falling Water, requiring a boat, due to its position on an island near Lake Päijänne. Now, however, there’s a bridge, so you can drive. Designed in the 1950s by Alvar Aalto – whose descendants still own it – the house, as Clare says, “is tiny”. But for her, the setting makes an impact. “Hearing the water, again, is pretty amazing. There is a sense of peacefulness.” Built around a central courtyard, the façade of the house is painted white, while the internal walls feature more than 50 types of bricks and tiles in experimental patterns, hence the building’s name.
18. Turn End, Haddenham, England
As co-founder of this estate agency, you can bet that Albert Hill has seen his fair share of living spaces. His favourite? Turn End, designed and built in the early 1960s by Peter and Margaret Aldington, who are still in residence today. It forms part of a trio of Grade II*-listed houses, which also includes The Turn and Middle Turn. “The garden is so intrinsically integrated with the house,” Albert says, who penned a love letter to this place in Issue No.4 of The Modern House Magazine. “The garden actually comes into the bedroom, it’s just incredible. I always admired the house because it’s really hard to photograph,” he continues (although we think Rich Stapleton did an excellent job for us). “The delights of it are not showy. You do have to walk around the space to experience them.”
19. Martello Tower, Aldeburgh, England
Martello Tower is a 19th-century coastal fort overlooking the sea in Suffolk. Having been converted into a house by two architects – Stuart Piercy and Duncan Jackson – in 2010, it’s a home we’re well acquainted with, having previously sold it. It was the choice of Margaret Howell, who has a nearby house and a long-standing affinity with the area. She remembers walking past when Duncan was working there and he invited her in. “I went to the top floor and it is a real experience. It has a 360 degree view – there’s the sea on one side and land on the other,” she says. “The windows look very small from the outside, but when you’re in and you look through one, you get lovely long perspectives.”
20. Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City, Mexico
“There’s something really melancholy about this house,” says Laura Jackson, the founder of homeware marketplace Glassette, of Casa Luis Barragán. “All of the rooms are quite simple but then you get these pops of colour that give you a sense of personality. Then there’s this beautiful floating staircase made out of volcanic rock. When you look at it face on, it’s like there’s nothing there. It’s incredibly clever,” she continues. “It made me think about architecture in a different way.” The house, which lies down an unassuming street in Mexico City, was designed by Luis Barragán in 1947 and he lived there until his death in 1988. It was included in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2004.
21. Casa Gilardi, Mexico City, Mexico
“It’s a real masterpiece,” says Matt when introducing fashion designer Eudon Choi‘s first choice Luis Barragán’s Casa Gilardi, which was completed in 1976. It was the last house he designed – in fact, the architect had already retired when he was approached with the brief by Pancho Gilardi and Martin Luque, who owned an advertising agency in Mexico City. What made Barragán say yes? The beautiful jacaranda tree that sits on the plot, which he went on to build the home around. Today, the Luque family still live here, but welcome visitors – Eudon being one of them. “The house is mesmerising,” he says. Its bold palette – which was inspired by the paintings of Mexican artist Chucho Reyes Ferreira – and the way it reacts with natural light, in particular, is remarkable. “The sun changes the colours of the house throughout the day.”
22. E-1027, Cote d’Azur, France
E-1027 was the first building designed by Eileen Gray. “To me, it’s the perfect backdrop to showcase her beautiful furniture,” says Eudon. “I also love that Le Corbusier was obsessed with the house and tried to persuade her to sell the place to him, which she denied.” When Gray died, Le Corbusier proceeded to paint a mural on a wall in her house in an act of what’s now seen as vandalism. The house’s chequered history doesn’t end there either: E-1027 was used for target practice during World War II by German soldiers; Le Corbusier drowned in the sea nearby 1965; in the 1980s Peter Kägi, a physician to former owner Marie-Louise Schelbert, inherited the house and used it for drug- and sex-fuelled parties. Then in 1996, he was murdered in the living room. It has since been rescued and restored and, as Matt says, “its a fascinating place to visit”.
23. Spa Green Estate, Clerkenwell, England
“It was an unbelievable joy living there. The proportions were amazing,” says Penny Martin, editor in chief of The Gentlewoman, of her former flat within the Spa Green Estate. Originally designed by the modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin in the 1930s, the estate was constructed in 1949 and awarded Grade II*-listed status in 1998. As Matt points out in the episode, it was described by Survey of London as “heroic”. Spa Green borrowed then forward-thinking features from Lubetkin’s acclaimed Highpoint in Highgate, including lifts, central heating, balconies, light-filled living spaces and a roof terrace. “It was a very pleasurable few years and it was my perfect home,” Penny continues. “I loved it”.
24. Hill House, Helensburgh, Scotland
Hill House in Helensburgh, not too far from Glasgow, was built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1902 for the publisher Walter Blackie and is now in the hands of the National Trust of Scotland. “I think it’s one of the most important modern houses in the UK and indeed Europe – if not the world,” says architect Kevin Carmody, one half of architecture practice Carmody Groake, which has been working on a conservation project there. Mackintosh spent six months with the Blackies before embarking on the project, getting to know the family, the way they lived and the site. “What we have here is a complete piece of work – this is a piece of architecture where he’s designed everything; all of the interiors, the wallpapers, textiles, the furniture and even the cutlery. He invested in everything.”
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