THE ART OF SELLING ARCHITECTURE

The Modern House is the country’s foremost estate agency for houses and apartments of outstanding design. Our main office is in central London, and we have further regional offices handling sales and lettings throughout the UK. Founded in 2004 by Directors Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd, we are an independent agency with a reputation for exceptional sales results. Whether it’s a Modernist house, a cutting-edge contemporary apartment or anything in between, we specialise exclusively in modern properties. No-one understands this sector of the market as intimately as us. This is what we do. It is all we do.

RESIDENT EXPERTS

What sets us apart from other well-known agencies is that, as well as being qualified estate agents, we have professional and academic training in architecture. Furthermore, having represented properties in just about every London postcode and every county in southern Britain, we have experience that extends well beyond the limits of the local market.

WHAT IS “MODERN”?

We represent properties built between the 1920s (the early years of the Modern Movement in Britain) and the present day. We also sell Georgian, Victorian and other period buildings with exceptional modern interiors, as well as superior conversions and extensions, penthouses and loft apartments… in short, anything designed with care and proficiency by an architect or a designer.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

Our properties are routinely featured in print and online media, both in the UK and abroad. Editors check in with us on a weekly basis because we are guaranteed to have what they need: superlative properties and stunning imagery. Our backgrounds in journalism mean that we understand how the press works, and we have a wealth of personal contacts within the industry.

INTEGRITY

Our advice to clients is always based on authority, honesty and factual accuracy. We are articulate, professional and purposeful, and work hard to achieve the exceptional outcomes for which we are renowned. The Modern House is a member of The Property Ombudsman Scheme.

THE DIRECTORS

MATT GIBBERD has an MA (Hons) in History & Art History from the University of Edinburgh. Formerly a Senior Editor at The World of Interiors magazine, he has written on architecture, art and design for newspapers and magazines including The Telegraph, GQ Style and Grand Designs. He comes from a family of architects, and is the grandson of the celebrated Modern Movement architect Sir Frederick Gibberd. Matt has been the Director of London Sales at The Modern House since 2004. He has sold hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of the capital’s most iconic property, including buildings designed by John Pawson, David Adjaye and Maxwell Fry.

ALBERT HILL graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA (Hons) in Art History. He was the Design Editor at Wallpaper* under founding editor Tyler Brûlé, and has subsequently written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Independent. He has also contributed to a number of books, and has commentated on architecture, design and property on both television and radio. Albert founded The Modern House in June 2004. As Director of Nationwide Sales, he has overseen the sale of extraordinary properties in all corners of the country. He has an unrivalled knowledge of the UK’s modern houses and a contacts book to match.

THE ARCHITECTS

Britain has a rich history of Modern architecture. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s it was home to many talented avant-garde architects, some of whom were fleeing the turbulent political situations of their home nations. Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, two of the most important figures of the groundbreaking Bauhaus school in Germany, settled in London in 1935; Ernö Goldfinger arrived from Hungary; and Berthold Lubetkin and Serge Chermayeff emigrated from Russia. Many of these architects went on to establish notable careers in Britain, building numerous houses and apartment blocks that still stand to this day.

It was also during this period that Connell, Ward & Lucas designed some particularly fine one-off houses and Patrick Gwynne designed his own radical home, The Homewood (now owned by the National Trust). Lubetkin and the Tecton Group produced perhaps the most celebrated Modernist building of the 1930s, Highpoint in north London. Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry and Frederick Gibberd all established their reputations with the design of seminal apartment blocks.

A new generation of architects continued to fly the flag for Modernism after the Second World War. Eric Lyons and Geoffrey Townsend were the inspiration behind the forward-thinking development company Span, which built 30 housing estates between 1948 and 1984, all combining affordability with good design and uplifting landscaping. Other large-scale projects included Powell & Moya’s Churchill Gardens Estate, Denys Lasdun’s Keeling House, and the Golden Lane Estate by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon. The latter went on to design the Barbican Estate.

By the 1960s, the Modern style of house – a style that emphasised light, space and the integration of architecture into the natural surroundings – became popular on a far broader scale, with such prominent figures as the footballer George Best commissioning original buildings. Designs by architects like Peter Foggo and David Thomas were heavily influenced by the Case Study houses of California. This was the decade in which Norman Foster and Richard Rogers (as part of Team 4) began their architectural careers by designing houses for friends and family. Their style would later be referred to as High Tech. The ‘60s are also remembered for the impact of high-rise housing developments, with “cities in the sky” designed by the likes of Ernö Goldfinger and Alison & Peter Smithson.

During the 1970s and ‘80s, Britain's reputation as an important centre of cutting-edge architecture remained undimmed. This was a time when Postmodernism came and went, and architects such as Nicholas Grimshaw, Terry Farrell, Michael Hopkins, Edward Cullinan and James Stirling all made their names. Michael Manser designed some of Britain’s finest country houses, displaying the Modernist style in its purest form, and Patrick Hodgkinson produced the now-revitalised Brunswick Centre.

The 1990s proved a particularly fruitful period, with Future Systems, Hudson Featherstone, John Pawson and Claudio Silvestrin all working on internationally acclaimed residential projects. By the turn of the 21st century, Britain could boast of being the home of some of the world's most important architects – notably the Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid. The pioneering domestic work of architects like Tony Fretton, David Adjaye, Sergison Bates, Buschow Henley, Caruso St. John and Eldridge Smerin has ensured that Britain's architectural heritage is safe for future generations.