"Modernist houses are no longer like Marmite – something you love or hate. One enterprising estate agency called The Modern House was established in 2003 solely to handle modern marvels. 'We saw a lot of very interesting houses being marketed in quite the wrong way by local estate agents trying to make them look "normal",' the agency's Albert Hill says. 'They need beautiful photography, lots of explanation, history and context."

Caroline McGhie, The Telegraph
  
"A MODERN VIEW
Nr. Torquay, Devon
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Four-bedroom house completed in 2004 on a 1.4-acre site. The dual-aspect living room has distant views to the sea and the grounds include an orchard, pasture, greenhouse and extensive parking.
We say: Lots of sliding full-length doors to maximise light and give access to various terraces from which to enjoy the views. This is a house that works brilliantly for the needs of a modern family."

Kate Watson-Smyth, The Independent
  
"Gloucestershire
Little London, in the village of Longhope near the Forest of Dean, was designed in the 1960s by the architect Gerry Jones. With three bedrooms and 1,507 sq ft of space, it has huge windows and a Japanese-style garden. Gloucester is 10 miles away.
Agent: The Modern House
They say: A classic example of mid-century modern design
We say: The house... could do with a new heating system"

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"Visibility has been deliberately curtailed at a nine-acre site at Ravensdane Wood, Charing, in Kent. In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the 3,000 sq ft low-lying three/four-bedroom house has been given planning permission and will feature state-of-the-art green technologies – architect Laurence Abbott was with the Richard Rogers Partnership.

Abbott has set the design in a natural valley, away from the prevailaing winds, and only its largely transparent upper storey is visible through the trees from the surrounding area."

Gwenda Brophy, The Independent
  
"Finding a truly spectacular home to buy or rent can be an impossibly difficult, time-consuming task. Architecture journalists Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd have changed that with The Modern House, a UK-based real estate site dedicated to design, decor, and distinguished homes."

Fiona Killackey, Cool Hunting, New York (www.coolhunting.com)
  
"The house that Julian and Charlotte Cowie bought was, to put it mildly, lacking in kerb appeal. The property they chose for their young family was an unloved Sixties box built of cheap orangey brick. To make matters worse it was surrounded by rather grand Georgian properties...

Today the Corner House is barely recognisable. It is a cool model of pared-down modern architecture, and that brickwork has vanished forever beneath a layer of immaculate white render. The Cowies are selling the house in order to move to the country, and it is on the market with The Modern House."

Ruth Bloomfield, The Sunday Telegraph
  
"Watch This Space

End House, Manwood Road, London SE4
Agent: The Modern House

They say: Newly completed three-bedroom house by Edgley Design – named by Wallpaper* magazine as one of the hottest young architecture firms in the world.

We say: If you like this company's work then buy this while they are still affordable. The small windows on to the road belie the amount of light at the back. It is situated on a corner by a roundabout though so it isn't the most peaceful of locations. Close to several overground train stations."

The Independent
  
"It's hard to imagine a more spectacular spot on which to build a house than Ravensdane Wood in Kent. The architect Laurence Abbott obviously thought so when he bough nine acres of bluebell-strewn woodland near the village of Charing and designed a beautiful angular house for it.

Albert Hill, of The Modern House, the specialist agent, estimates that a traditional self-build should add between 30 per cent and 40 per cent to the property's value... Hill is marketing the Abbott site (www.themodernhouse.net), but for those in search of a dream holiday home the Modern House also has a hillside site near Ilfracombe, Devon, with designs for a 5,000 sq ft house by the Stirling Prize finalist Guy Greenfield."

Ruth Bloomfield, The Times
  
"Warwickshire
In the late 1970s, the architect Rex Chell transformed a dilapidated cottage on Castle Lane, in Warwick, into this three-storey townhouse with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. Features include a cantilevered balcony, a roof terrace, views of Warwick Castle and courtyards inside and out.
Agent: The Modern House
They say: A masterful mix of contemporary and period features
We say: The top floor's 30ft-long window would be a job to clean"

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"The Marquess of Camden once stored his collection of cars in a red-brick garage on the Bayham Estate, until the great family ran low on funds and began selling off its ancestral acres in the heart of Kent. To the Marquess, the garage must have seemed nothing more than a functional outbuilding but [the current owners] quickly realised its potential.

Over the next three decades they repeatedly adapted and extended the structure to suit their changing family needs... then six years ago – at the point in life when most people downsize – the couple decided to almost double thier floorspace, transforming it into a substantial five to six-bedroom home designed with flexibility in mind.

With the closing of two internal doors, the property, renamed the Carriage House, can be transformed into two separate houses.

The Carriage House is on sale with The Modern House"

Ruth Bloomfield, The Sunday Telegraph
  
"Britain's first modernist house shocked the nation. Now 'the blight of Bucks' is a national treasure...

Today, [High & Over] is widely regarded as the first significant British house of the modern movement. And for the first time in half a century, it is for sale as a single unit... People either love or hate modernist architecture – there is no middle ground – but it would be difficult to imagine anyone not enjoying living in this glorious museum piece."

Ben West, The Sunday Times
  
"All in the Details
Salmon Lane, London, E14
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Highly imaginative end-of-terrace which references the surrounding buildings externally but is unashamedly modern inside. It has one bedroom, a kitchen-diner and south-facing private garden.
We say: It was designed by the architect for his own occupation, which is always a good sign, and there are lovely details, such as the fully folding garden doors."

The Independent
  
"East Sussex
Recently reduced by £25,000, this five-bedroom, Grade II-listed 1930s art-deco house is a stone's throw from Cooden Beach and one mile from Bexhill-on-Sea. It has 3,000 sq ft of living space and a large roof terrace. themodernhouse.net"

The Sunday Times
  
"The House That Cool Built

'Sixties architecture is back in fashion,' says Matt Gibberd of specialist estate agency The Modern House... Among low-cost opportunities is a group of six flat-roofed houses designed in 1965 by Swiss-born architect Rudy Mock, a student of Frank Llloyd Wright. At Bawdsey in Suffolk, they feature car ports, concrete fireplaces and walls of glass, all for under £300,000."

Lesley Gillilan, Coast
  
"There are many specialist estate agencies, with fortes that vary from flats and bungalows to country estates. But the Modern House, an agency that deals solely in homes of truly outstanding modern design, has carved an impressively eclectic niche all of its own.

Despite having no shop front, doing almost no advertising, and an entry policy that makes the Queen's garden parties look like a free-for-all, the company is celebrating its fifth year in business.

We asked co-founder Matt Gibberd, architectural journalist and grandson of the celebrated Modern Movement architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, how it all works."

Primelocation.com

To read the full interview, click here.

  
"Top 5 Properties of the Week:
Buckinghamshire
Prestwood, Great Missenden
5 bedrooms, indoor pool, outhouse
The Modern House

Prestwood was the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired architect Peter Aldington's first major commission, which Pevsner later described as 'an exciting combination of classic International Modern forms and tactile natural materials'... 'We've thoroughly enjoyed living within a piece of art,' says [the owner]. 'Anyone who visits and doesn't like the house must be visually dead.'"

Country Life


  
"School's Out
Victoria Park Lofts, Victoria Park, London, E9
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Generously proportioned loft apartment with garden in this school conversion. Arranged over two floors, there are two double bedrooms and a double-height open-plan kitchen/living room.
We say: It seems a silly price for a two-bed flat but then it's London, it's a fashionable location, and there's over 1,200 sq ft of space, not forgetting the garden, study area and parking."

The Independent
  
"Kent
The Carriage House, on the Bayham Abbey estate, near Lamberhurst, was built in the 19th century and given a modernist twist in the 1970s. It has four bedrooms, a sun room and far-reaching rural views. Tunbridge Wells is six miles away.
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Cleverly converted to maximise space and light.
We say: There is an annual service charge of about £600."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"Loft Living
Nile Street, Islington, London N1
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Authentic four-bedroom loft apartment on the second floor of a former clothing factory with windows all along one side and access to an unofficial roof terrace...
We say: The living space measures an impressive 40ft by 30ft with lovely old floorboards, columns and long windows. This is what a loft apartment should look like and, with its four bedrooms, everyone can find some privacy."

The Independent
  
"This four-bedroom house next to Waterlow Park has four bathrooms, one reception, a cinema room, a two-car garage, and a top-floor kitchen with a rectractable roof. Frameless full-height windows look out over Highgate cemetery, the resting place of Karl Marx."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
 
"In the mid-1960s an architect who went to work with Richard Rogers on the Pompidou Centre built a cluster of low-cost starter houses in the Home Counties. The result is that rarest of beasts, a Sixties estate on which you would actually aspire to live...

The architectural historian Albert Hill, a director of The Modern House, which specialises in contemporary property, says buyers are spooked by 'the shock of the new'.

'People would be happy to move into a Victorian house riddled with problems, but this [Sixties] period has been demonised. These houses are no more troublesome than any other house, they are just not everyday. The upside is that this was an idealistic time for architects. They were positive about creating a new world, and so the care that has gone into the detailing of the buildings is incredibly well planned. They are the avant-garde of how people want to live.'"

Ruth Bloomfield, The Times: Bricks & Mortar
  
"MODERN MARVEL

Fulbrook Mews, Tufnell Park, London N19
Agent: The Modern House
They say: Close to Tufnell Park tube station, this exceptional mews house is arranged over three floors and has two bedrooms, open-plan kitchen and reception, and a roof terrace.
We say: Designed as a block of five, this apparently has enough storage to put most other commercial developers to shame. The roof terrace is small with high walls which does make it private and inside it's immaculate in fashionable shades of neutral."

The Independent
  
"London N19: This three-storey mews house in Tufnell Park, built in 2003, has two bedrooms, 842 sq ft of living space and an open-plan kitchen and reception area..."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"Househunting Goes Hi-Tech

Innovative mapping technology and clever mobile apps are taking the legwork out of buying a home. Kate Watson-Smyth offers the guide to searching for property in the internet age

Buying bookmarks: A browser's guide

The Modern House
For something truly special (and far beyond most people's budget) check out the Modern House, which is dedicated to showcasing truly cutting-edge architect-designed houses. Prices start reasonably at around £200,000 but go up pretty much as high as you can imagine. (themodernhouse.net)"

Kate Watson-Smyth, The Independent
  
"[Mr and Mrs C] are at the cutting edge in more ways than one. They are among the pioneers of a new kind of house-by-the-sea that is appearing in little boutique developments all over the West Country. These aren't the quaint old fishermen's cottages with tiny windows, lumpy sofas and nowhere to sit outside. They are tailored to suit urban surfers, internationals who like alfresco eating and expect hassle-free income from letting when they are not in residence themselves.

"[Mr and Mrs C] have gone a stage further by using the architect Simon Conder, known for the Black Rubber House at Dungeness that won the Stephen Lawrence prize. These six houses at Wheal Friendly Garden, St Agnes, on the spectacular north Cornish coast, are super-eco, built of natural materials, clad in iroko and have wood-burning stoves, huge amounts of glass and outdoor decking..."

Caroline McGhie, The Sunday Telegraph
  
The Tall House, Wimbledon:

"...Although high and narrow, it is unobtrusive, tucked behind a large oak tree and set back slightly from the road. Only 15ft wide, it doesn't look much from the outside, but there is a sense of airiness and space completely belied by the exterior – and by the lack of any significant windows in the side. Instead, light streams in from glass celings above, opening up the four-storey house... And it's a fun house: there are two staircases, which play games with your senses, and a sense of lightness rather than serious, brow-furrowing architectural endeavour."

The Sunday Times
  
"Suffolk: This four-bedroom house, with 750 sq ft of living space, is in the middle of a group of six, designed in 1965 by the architect Rudy Mock, who worked for Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s. It is in the village of Bawdsey, 10 miles from Woodbridge, which is one and three-quarter hours by train from London Liverpool Street, and a 10-minute walk from the beach. Agent: The Modern House."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"On the market:

St Agnes, Cornwall
Three-bedroom contemporary home with sustainable features, set in communal gardens close to the coast.

Eagle House, Coopers Green, East Sussex
Individually designed house based on a bird in flight, built in 1979. Set in a 2.5 acre plot in a conservation area."

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"It seems the classicists have missed a trick. At a time when the world is undergoing one of the worst economic crises of modern times, it seems modern housing is enjoying something of a renaissance. [We] noted with interest how specialist outfit The Modern House Estate Agents announced it will be celebrating its fifth anniversary this summer. Far from struggling to encourage people to part with vast sums of cash for London properties, it seems there is a healthy interest, with recent sales of properties designed by David Adjaye, Erno Goldfinger and James Stirling..."

The Architects' Journal
  
"On the Market:
Paterson House, East Lothian Coast
Architect-designed three-bedroom home. Impressive sea views and located just 12 miles from Edinburgh. The Modern House."

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"East Sussex: Designed in 1979 by the British architect Ian Ritchie, the award-winning Eagle House… has been described as "metallic modernity in a bucolic setting". Built for a botanis, the glass and steel house is shaped like a bird in flight. It has four bedrooms, an open-plan living/kitchen/dining room, a double garage and a separate studio. From nearby Buxted, it's just over an hour by train to London Bridge. Agent: The Modern House"

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"Rental of the Week: London
At 3,412 sq ft, the Deckhouse in Thames Reach, west London, is the epitome of minimalist industrial chic. The three-bedroom property has one reception room with a mezzanine gallery, an open-plan kitchen and dining room, two large roof terraces and two parking spaces. It's available unfurnished."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
Centaur Street, London SE1

Architectural Digest Russia
  
"This spectacular barn conversion covers as much spaces as five semis. Spanning more than 8,000 sq ft of internal space... it is large enough to accommodate a three-storey home at one end and a two-storey glass box at the other... In between is a vast open space from which you can understand and appreciate the grandeur of the barn, its soaring space and the crafted beauty of the exposed wooden frame... Saling Barn is for sale through The Modern House."

Dominic Bradbury, The Sunday Times
  
"Rental of the Week: Somerset
The Dairy House, on the Hadspen estate, was converted and extended with an oak and glass annexe in 2006. Built in 1901, the 2,030 sq ft former cheesemaker's cottage has five bedrooms, a kitchen with black marble worktops, a large reception room with an open fireplace and a study area with floor-to-ceiling windows..."

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"IN TOWN
Marylebone, London NW8. The Modern House
Because... Now's a great time to rent - and you can snap up an architectural gem. This two-bed loft apartment, by architects Munkenbeck & Marshall, is housed in an art deco former factory.
It's a shame that... It's 10 minutes to the nearest tube station."

Anna Tims, The Guardian
  
"Ansty Plum is a rare flower: an experimental modern house of the 1960s still in mint condition. It's also a delight to look at, with a stylish raked roof that perfectly matches the steep slope of the hill on which it is built..."

Marcus Binney, The Times: Bricks & Mortar
  
Pilgrim's Lane, London NW3
Prah Road, London N4
Clerkenwell Green, London EC1
All for sale through The Modern House

Architectural Digest Russia
  
100 Best Things in the World Right Now, GQ Magazine
  
"On the Market:
Charterhall Road, Edinburgh
An architect-designed, three-bedroom house with panoramic windows, upgraded by the current owners. The Modern House.
Ansty, Nr. Shaftesbury, Dorset
A two-bedroom 'modernist'-style house plus guest house with planning permission to add a large annex. The Modern House."

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"TAKE THREE: WACKY HOMES
Near Castle Cary, Somerset
What you get: Reception room, study area, kitchen, five beds, two bathrooms.
Pros: Should either of the slate bath tubs start to feel overcrowded, you can open the glass doors beside them and drop into the bathing pool that dents the back of the building. It's the bathroom and kitchen extension that is the thrill of this old cheese-maker's cottage set on a private estate.
Cons: You can only borrow it.
To rent, The Modern House"

Anna Tims, The Guardian
  
"TAKE THREE: ARCHITECT-DESIGNED HOMES
1. Balfron Tower, London E14
What you get: One reception room, kitchen / diner, two bedrooms, bathroom.
Pros: This giant is grade II-listed because it was built by modernist Ernö Goldfinger (he lived briefly in the flat two doors down to get a feel for the place). From the balcony of this top-floor segment you can gaze acros London. Canary Wharf is a walk away.
Cons: Poplar is not the sort of place you'd want to get lost at night. www.themodernhouse.net

2. Long Sutton, near Spalding, Lincolnshire
What you get: Three reception rooms, kitchen / dining room, four bedrooms, bathroom.
Pros: It's exuberant art deco, owned by the same family since it was built in 1934 so most period features have survived. The master bedroom has a balcony and glass doors open from two of the reception rooms into the garden.
Cons: It could do with a slight update inside. www.themodernhouse.net"

Anna Tims, The Guardian
  
"House of the week: Inspired by Mies van der Rohe, this three-bedroom penthouse in Clerkenwell was designed by David Chipperfield Architects. It has 2,694 sq ft of living space over two floors. The top floor is a glazed pavilion with a wraparound terrace, divided into kitchen/dining, living and reception areas. Planning permission has been granted for a further terrace on the roof."

Helen Davies, Sunday Times
 
"One-off penthouse by Tonkin Liu and Richard Rogers, with roof terrace, five bedrooms and open cinema"

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"In England, a Modern Home in an Ancient Forest..."

Beth Gardiner, New York Times: Great Homes & Destinations
  
"Rooftop Living: It's hard to fault this family house sitting on the London skyline. It's a romantic vision of how a future city might be, and it proves that you don't have to sacrifice quality of life when you grow up and have children."

Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times
  
"Estate agent The Modern House, which specialises in the sale of 20th century homes, has launched a new rental service."

Building Design Magazine


  
"As the economy comes down around our ears, general wisdom declares that purse strings should be tightened wherever possible. If you haven't managed to bag your dream home already though, help is at hand courtesy of The Modern House's new lettings agency, which means you can ride out the economic storm in style, albeit in a temporary abode."


Hugo Macdonald, Wallpaper*.com
  
"Designed in 1959 by James Morris and Robert Steedman, the Scottish architects, and built for 2,000 pounds, the house holds a prominent place in Edinburgh’s recent architectural history. Among the country’s pioneers of clean, minimal lines, the architects envisioned a house that combined the coziness of a Highland croft with the airiness of a Swedish or Danish modern home.

The result? A pair of rectangular boxes, one perched on the other, with the sleeping areas downstairs surrounded by windowless 12-inch-thick white walls, and the light-filled living areas on top. Not surprisingly, the original owners called it the Upside-Down House.

The 2006 Scottish Design Awards put the house at No. 42 on its list of 100 Important Modern Buildings in Scotland, and it has a Heritage B listing, which means special approval is required for any structural changes."

Linda Gannell, New York Times 		 
"House hunter: A dramatic facelift has given this formerly dowdy Thirties property an exciting new look...

The architect's solution [to update the property] was dramatic: to open up the central space in the house, creating a double-height reception area with a mezzanine above...When completed, the house won the Architect's Journal Small Project award for 2005. "

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"Property of the Week: St Briavels, Wye Valley, Gloucestershire
Because... It's an audacious exercise in geometry, growing in levels out of the sloping landscape. Designed by Bob and Tim Organ in the late 60s, octagonal units rise out of the almost circular kitchen, the living room wraps around a free-standing concrete fireplace and  a triangular study overhangs on a mezzanine level. Capping it all is a ceiling spoked with beams that resemble the underside of an umbrella. Many of the walls are exposed breeze blocks and an original fitted cherry wood bed presides over one of the five bedrooms. Wall-to-floor windows look out over 28 acres of hilly woded grounds, including a disused swimming pool that was once covered by one of the few glass geodesic domes to be built in the UK. It's a shame that... The interior decor exudes more than a whiff of the 70s."

Anna Tims, The Guardian
  
"HOUSE OF THE WEEK: Edinburgh Stilitto House, known by locals, apparently affectionately, as "the upside-down house"  is in the Blackford area of the city. Designed in 1959 in the Modernist tradition by the then up-and-coming architects Morris & Steedman, this glass-and-wood box, sitting on top of another long, white box, has three bedrooms and a third of an acre of wooded garden. Inside, light wooden panelling, skylights, open-plan living and the original ship-style built-in cupboards feature. The bathrooms have recently been refurbished, with Villeroy & Boch tiling, Japanese-style bathing areas and Phillippe Starck accessories. There are views to Holyrood Park.
They say: A thrilling, architect-designed house that is one of the most ground-breaking residential buildings to have been built in Britain during this period.
We say: Your friends may end up hating you, as you insist ordinary houses are passé, and "living cubes" are de rigueur. Agent: The Modern House, 08456 344068, www.themodernhouse.net"

Houses of the Week, The Sunday Times
  
"House hunter  Don't miss this oppotunity to be the owner of a slice of Sixties architectural history...

In 1965 New York-born architect Neave Brown built a row of five houses in a quiet cul-de-sac called Winscombe Street in Dartmouth Park, north London, one of which was for himself. The concept was both contemporary and unusual....One of the five houses is currently on the market, and according to Matt Gibberd of The Modern House estate agency, it is in the best condition. "

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"Sliver House, Westminster, London:
Four-storey, three-bedroom house by Boyarsky Murphy architects with wet room and Poggenpohl kitchen. "

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"Balfron Tower, Poplar, London:
Top-floor two-bedroom flat in grade II-listed iconic apartment block designed by Ernö Goldfinger in 1967. "

Grand Designs Magazine
  
"This week's Dream Homes - forget the price tag and prepare to be wowed...."

FindaProperty.com
 		 
"Bargain of the week: a one-bed flat in the Grade II-listed 50s Langham House off hyper-posh Ham Common."

Tom Dyckhoff, The Guardian
  
"CALIFORNIA DREAMING: Designer Jason Maclean's glorified garage is a home-made tribute to West Coast minimalism.

I'd been looking for a place for ages when a friend suggested The Modern House, an online estate agency that deals in 20th-century architecture. Just a few weeks before, I'd been in Palm Springs, visiting Eames House, and when I came to view this one-storey house in Camberwell, I was struck by how similar it was in look and feel, even down to the bamboo trees planted around the windows. It feels like a world away from London, it's so tranquil."

Interview by Rhiannon Harries, Independent on Sunday

  
"Concrete Towers have their fans... These iconic structures from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies are now sought-after living spaces for a discerning few with an eye for design and a nose for a bargain. A top-floor, two-bedroom flat in Balfron Tower is for sale. It is two doors down from the flat in which Goldfinger lived for a brief time. The imminent refurbishment of the building, together with the Olympic regeneration of the area, means that the price may rocket...Modernism fans looking for a central location favour the Golden Lane estate, which was commended this year in the Housing Design awards. It is a budget option for people who long to live in the Barbican next door, designed in the Sixties by the same architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. Flats here cost about 10 percent less than those in the Barbican. A two-bedroom duplex with unusual double-height sliding windows and original parquet flooring is for sale. "

Kasia Maciejowska, The Times: Bricks and Mortar

  
"HOUSES OF THE WEEK: Oxfordshire
Built in 1976 by the architect John Levinson, Anvil Drey is a one-storey property int he village of Letcombe Regis. the three-bedroom, open-plan home has recently been refurbished, with new wooden floors and a kitchen. it is eight miles from Didcot Parkway, which is 45 minutes by fast train from London Paddington, and 17 miles from Oxford."

Helen Davies, The Sunday Times
  
"HOUSES OF THE WEEK: Essex
South House, a 19th-century cottage in rural Essex, was transformed in the 1970s - a wraparound glass extension with a black-painted wood frame and floor-to-ceiling glass walls added two studio rooms, a sunken kitchen and a sauna to the four-bedroom property. Set in a half-acre plot, it is one mile away from Feering and 10 from Colchester."

Helen Davies, The Sunday Times


 		 
"From a neglected late-modernist plot in south London a simple and serene courtyard retreat has emerged: Design and interiors specialist Jason Maclean struggled to find a suitable house to buy in the UK until a friend urged him to check The Modern House, the online estate agency that specialises in 20th century architecture. "I saw this house on the website on Friday and went to look at it on the Saturday," says Maclean "I knew then that I had to have it."'

Johnathan Bell, Wallpaper*
  
"HOUSES OF THE WEEK: Leicester
This Grade II-listed five-bedroom house, built in 1954, is thought to be the first open-plan home built in Britain. Designed by James Cubitt & Partners, the single-storey home, in the suburb of Stoneygate, a mile from the city centre, is full of hardwoods and bespoke cabinets. There is a separate garden studio, set in a quarter of an acre of mature gardens."

The Sunday Times

  
"Architects' Pads for sale now:  Clerkenwell Green.
Designed by the late Richard Paxton, this five-bedroom house has been described as 'one of the great London houses of the late 20th century'. "

Rachel Loos, Grazia
  
"Design for Living: Want a super-modern house but haven't got the time or huge budget to buy one? Find an architect selling their home... A designed-by-a-pro house definitely delivers big-time. It will more than likely feature a layout that has been carefully thought out to maximize every last bit of space. "It won't be a house that has simply been churned out," confirms Albert Hill of The Modern House, an estate agency that specialises in architect homes. "The architect will have thought about everything, including how the house sits in its environment." …Although many ex-architect houses don't come cheap – the average is about £700,000 with top-of-the-range properties going for £2.5 million – you can also snap up beautifully designed homes for as little as £250,000. They are likely to be a good investment, expecially when the market is slow. "Something of quality is always going to hold its value regardless of the ebb and flow of the market," says Albert Hill."

Rachel Loos, Grazia
  
Niels Nielsen, Byggeri
 		 
Eva Johannesson, Dagens Industri
 		 
"Jorn Utzon, Danish architect of the Sydney Opera House, used all his know-how to create this gem of a property amid the half-timbered horrors of Hertfordshire. This property, which took two years to build, is a gem: a beautifully built, lovingly maintained classic. English Heritage calls it 'a distinguished and beautifully detailed modern house'. It's not wrong. The more you see it, the better it gets."

Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times
  
Page 1
"So where can you find a house or a flat for sale with that special architect-owner legacy? Architecture aficionados will discover a mouth-watering array of beautifully designed homes at The Modern House (themodernhouse.net). Founded in 2004, this unique agency has a reputation as the first port of call for buyers with a passion for great design..."

Ben Felsenburg, London Lite
  
Page 1
"[...] But if traditional grandeur is not your idea of luxury, perhaps an architect-designed modernist masterpiece is. Albert Hill runs the Modern House estate agency, which deals with 'apartments and houses of architectural distinction', as he puts it. 'There's no sign of a downturn here. We haven't noticed any significant change in the market, but then our clients don't look at bricks and mortar in terms of cost per square foot. They look at a house as a piece of art,' Hill says. 'There's always a shortage of appropriate properties to meet demand, so prices are never seriously squeezed,' says Hill, whose agency is so exclusive it does not have a high street office, but instead operates via meetings, viewings and website promotion, and has around 30 homes on its books at a time. 'The only problem we've had has been the reluctance of sellers to sell such beautiful homes when they have to subject them to Home Information Packs,' says Hill. 'HIPs are standardised and for standard houses, not individual ones like these.' The irony is that the dip in the number of architectural gems put for sale through the agency because of HIPs merely serves to boost the prices of those that are on the market [...]"  

What the Agents Saw..., The Independent
  
"Ever found yourself tiring of the two-up, three-down end of the market and feel you could offer something to the higher end of the property spectrum? The Modern House, specialising in luxury 20th and 21st century property with real architectural finesse are recruiting…"

Kate Williams, EA Focus
  
"Designed by the ultra-cool starchitect David Adjaye (who has done work for Ewan McGregor), Lost House is a converted warehouse in King's Cross. At the heart of the four-bedroom house is a 60ft reception room with a black-resin floor. A dramatic enclosed swimming pool runs alongside the master bedroom."

The Sunday Times
 		 
"Property of the Week because of the views, through the floor to ceiling windows in the living room and three bedrooms, across the old town to the harbour and the sea. More of the same from the balcony and the gardens. The house was built high across the cliff face by the adventurous 60s architect Mervyn Seal and has been recommended for listed status. An original glass chandelier dangles from one of the timbered ceilings, and the wooden open-tread stairs and bespoke shelving preserve a retro glamour. There's a huge split-level living area, the bedrooms are doubles and a detached study stands in the grounds. A summerhouse with electricity sits at the top of the gardens and a car port at the bottom. Steps lead down from the front gardens to the town centre and the water. Its a shame that... 'the interior fittings are a little weary.'

Property Section, The Guardian
  
"Not everyone wants an English country pile, yet Britain's modern houses can be frustratingly hard to find.  So Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd, whose CVs include architecture, design and property journalism, decided to set up the Modern House, an estate agency specialising in exceptional properties from the 1920s onward"

Nisha Lilia Diu, Stella Magazine [The  Sunday Telegraph] 		 
"Vista Point was designed in the late 1960s by Gwynne for his chartered surveyor. Unimpressed by the local house styles in the Willowhayne estate - although there is a Marcel Breuer villa in a nearby road, for the most part, it is a hodgepodge of chalet bungalows, flatulent Tudorbethan and 1930s neo-rustic - Gwynne showed his contempt for the neighbours by devising a home that severed ties with them."

Angela Pertusini, Telegraph Property
 		 
"In the heart of the Kings Cross regeneration area, Lost House occupies the site of a former delivery yard. Its unobtrusive street presence gives little clue as to the awe-inspiring interior within..."

Grand Design, Add Lib Magazine
  
"Property of the Week: Its a riveting alien looming over the Norfolk coast. Once a 50's bungalow, it was distended and embellished by its owners, who plucked part of the roof into a wigwam of a chimney with a glass panel at the top through which the stars wink..." 

Anna Tims, The Guardian Weekend Magazine 		 
"If you're smitten with the modernist aesthetic, contact THE MODERN HOUSE, which sells twentieth and twenty-first century homes of architectural distinction."

Vanessa Barneby, Vogue
  

"Architect Alistair Howe and his wife Jane, a teacher, wanted a house with a big space for the family, and when, 12 years ago, they found a plot of land in Hudson, Hertfordshire, Alistair set about designing a house that would provide both fine views and their longed-for ideal living space ... The glazed wall of the exterior windows and the double-height atrium, which runs up through the centre of the house, is a bold architectural statement in a traditional English village. However, as the house is built from local materials, such as white render, black windows and grey tiles on the roof, there were no problems with the planners...”

Anthea Masey, Evening Standard (Homes & Property)



 		 
"For a breath of fresh air, go north to Tufnell Park, where one of five award-winning, glamorous 'Modernist' town houses, built in 2003 on a challenge plot is up for grabs. Crisp white architecture, generous storage space and a private, decked roof terrace are among the plus points [...]"

Buy of the Week, Evening Standard (Homes & Property)
 		 
"For something cutting-edge, themodernhouse.net offers mid-century modern classics and 21st-century award-winners. The historical details on each property are superb, as are the photographs and floor plans."

Jonathan Christie, The Independent 		 
This article features a Royston Summers-designed house in Surrey for sale with the Modern House:  "A new design-conscious generation is becoming brave enough to reintroduce its Panton chairs to an original 1960s or 70s home. 'I've been handling modern furniture for 15 years, and it's only in that time that people have begun to understand and collect post-war design. It's inevitable and logical that the next progression is to look at post-war housing to put it all in', explains Christie's modern design expert Simon Andrews, who has been living in 1960s builds for the past seven years - by chance at first and now by choice - and is observing growing interest in a previously disregarded market. [...] Albert Hill, an estate agent with The Modern House web-based agency, confirms that fashionable young creative and media families, who favour the roomy dimensions and blank internal canvas of a non-period interior, are appropriating 1960s and 70s homes." 

Jenny Dalton, Financial Times
 		 
"Stillness was built in 1934 by an architect called Gilbert Booth, in the moderne style. Its front, public face, is angular and quite austere which gives way at the back to a mass of voluptuous curves, punctured with glass and topped with a sun-deck to make use of its sunny south-facing position and to embrace the modernist ethos of health and well-being. Apart from renewing the electrics and replacing half of the windows (David went to Crittall as they had made the originals), there was little to do to the house but paint it a palette of soft neutral colours, re-render the exterior and get the original floors in tip top condition. Because it was brick-built rather than concrete-built it has none of the damp problems which are often associated with modernist homes."

Homes & Antiques
 		 
"In bosky little corners of England, tucked away down country lanes and suburban cul-de-sacs, are the remnants of pioneering experiments in modern living. Some still work, some don’t; some have been altered beyond recognition. But what about a 42 year-old glass, steel and timber house that is beautifully restored, makes a splendid family home and looks as if it were built yesterday? There aren’t so many of those. Space House in West Sussex is one of them. And it is for sale. [...] It is the home of Andrew Spurgeon and Ann Kelly and their son, Seren, 2, and as you watch the toddler pushing toys round the centre of the house, clambering down the broad steps into the big garden and returning with blackberries, you wonder why some people think that modernism and children don’t mix. Apart from anything else, floor-to-ceiling windows mean anyone one of any size can see out"

Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times
  
"An exceptionally important house called Six Pillars, by Berthold Lubetkin's architectural practice, has come on to the market in Dulwich. It was designed in 1932 and has 4 bedrooms, a study, a dining room and a sitting room that is 23ft by 16ft. Lubetkin is arguably the most influential figure in the British Modern movement. [...] Not all Modernist homes are beyond reach of a modest budget. Take the exceptional Ellis-Miller house in Prickwillow, Cambridgeshire. Built in the 1980s by Jonathan Ellis-Miller and borrowing heavily from Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Elwood and Mies Van Der Rohe. A derivative property is a great, affordable way to experience modernist living if it is done well, as this one is. It won the 1993 Riba British Steel Awards. When it's sunny, it's like a bit of Palm Springs in the Shires [...] Each of these properties are available through The Modern House, an agency that deals specifically with Modernist homes."

Simon Davis, The Spectator
 		 
"I decided to set up a company devoted to selling Modern houses with a colleague, Matt Gibberd... Although we deal with houses of later periods as well, it was the buildings of the 1920s and 1930s that first captured our hearts."

Albert Hill, The Independent Magazine
  
"You don’t have to be educated in architecture to appreciate Lubetkin's Six Pillars, but if you are, you'll fall in love...  When journalist Roger Trapp and his City solicitor wife, Deidre, bought Six Pillars, their modernist house, high on a hill in Sydenham, south London, neither of them had heard of the architect Berthold Lubetkin, and his architectural practice Tecton, 'We bought it for its clean, modern design, not for its architectural pedigree, which we only discovered later', says Roger Trapp "

Anthea Masey, City AM
 		 
"Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd launched The Modern House, Britain's first estate agency dealing exclusively in 'houses of architectural distinction from the 1920s to the present day'."

Annabel Freyberg, The Telegraph Magazine 		 
"Space House appears to be only a stone's throw from some sun-drenched LA beach, but actually it's in East Grinstead, Sussex– The concept of Space House has stood the test of time. The genius is in the contrast between its function and honesty and the pure beauty of it as an object– The house is for sale with The Modern House."

Jonathan Christie, 'Buy of the Week', The Independent 		 
"A specialist estate agency called The Modern House... celebrates the courageous clients and designers who produced modern designs throughout the 20th century."

Fay Sweet, Evening Standard 		 
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"Albert Hill set up an estate agency called The Modern House, tailormade for clients seeking smart 20th-century homes."

Caroline Roux, The Observer Magazine 		 
"A meticulously restored gem with a great roof terrace... "

Houses of the week, The Sunday Times
 		 
"With many of the original 1930s features intact, this beautiful freehold property is on the market through The Modern House, an agency specialising in architect-designed 20th and 21st century homes."

Period Ideas 		 
For sale through The Modern House Estate Agents, Six Pillars heralded a new spirit in architecture.

Zoe Dare Hall, The Independent 		 
"Lymington, with its period house and quaint old street, is not usually the place you expect to find an example of modern architectural excellence, which makes the Pardey House all the more rare...."
Jayne Stamp, Hampshire Society