Modernist Estates: The buildings and the people who live in them

Product Information

A unique studio apartment on the ground floor of a new building in Forest Gate, designed by Marcus Lee, formerly a director at the Richard Rogers Partnership. The accommodation benefits from its own private entrance and comprises a spacious open-plan room with a fitted plywood kitchen, a sleeping area, and a large en-suite bathroom with a walk-in shower. Polished concrete floors with underfloor heating run throughout. In 2010, as Laurent was walking in Courbevoie, he discovered a tiny little street where he felt time had stopped for 50 years. "The place was surreal. I befriended a couple of old people and started to photograph them. Their traditional garden offered a stark contrast with the surrounding skyline of towers, bringing together two different eras, two different living styles."

Modernist Estates Sprowston Mews → Modernist Estates

There are some downsides – the flats are cold, not just because of the single glazing in most flats but because there are historically only two hot water radiators across two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room. The walls are also relatively thin, as reinforced concrete was such a new technique at the time. We have a lot of wool blankets and Scandinavian sweaters! An impressive two-bedroom duplex apartment in a unique mews in Forest Gate. The building, completed in 2019, was designed by Marcus Lee, formerly a director at the Richard Rogers Partnership, and comprises a studio apartment on the ground floor and this duplex on the top two floors, complete with its own roof terrace. Though it only lasted from 1919 to 1933, in those 14 years Bauhaus ushered in a truly modern way of thinking about arts and crafts, the public realm, urbanism and the union of form and function. It doesn’t take an imaginative leap to grasp that Bauhaus was at least as revolutionary as republicanism in 1919. The old town is staid and stately: 12 of its mainly baroque buildings are Unesco-listed as “Classical Weimar”. Less than 15 minutes’ walk away is the Haus am Horn – a pioneering “white cube” that hosted the first Bauhaus exhibition, in 1923. Squat and flat-walled, sober verging on drab, this “test house” has its own Unesco listing. Modernist Estates” is an attractive, sumptuous book reflecting the modern taste for modernist/brutalist architecture. It covers works by Goldfinger, SPAN, etc with brief architectural scene-setting for each development, interviews with the householder(s) and a series of interior shots.It’s extraordinary, the rise of interest in these homes,” says John Grindrod, author of Concretopia: A Journey Around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain. “I think Grand Designs has had a bit to do with it, and I think it’s partly a reaction against developers’ houses of the 80s and 90s – heritage design, fake Tudor, with small rooms and small windows. Instead, these houses are open, with entire glazed walls.” The sales team really understood the assets of my home and the kind of person it would appeal to, selecting potential buyers carefully, with no time-wasters. The marketing team went to extraordinary efforts to promote my house via their own outreach and in national media. All in all, a great experience.” Gorgeous and absolutely fascinating! This is a thorough and affectionate exploration of almost two dozen Modernist public housing complexes in England. Most were built during the postwar era, though the overall range spans from the 30s to the 90s. It brought to mind some of the later seasons of Call the Midwife, which often dealt with London's housing crisis. Several characters moved into flats like these and it was interesting to get a real-life look at the types of places they lived. The trip was supported by the German tourist board. See bauhaus100.de for more information. Original Bauhaus: the Centenary Exhibition runs from 6 Sept to 27 Jan 2020 at the Berlinische Galerie in Kreuzberg. Direct Deutsche Bahn trains run Berlin Hbf-Dessau (from €19.90); Weimar-Berlin usually involves a change at Erfurt (from €29.90 bahn.com); Dessau-Weimar may involve 2-3 changes (from €19.90) Beyond Bauhau: more modernist classics in Germany Güldner tells me: “There was no need for embellishment or overcrowding. Buildings could be newer and better, without copying anything that had already been. Beauty was born out of finding a solution to the question: what is useful?”

How a cash-strapped generation fell for the fantasy world of

Built in 1908-9 to designs by architect Peter Behrens and engineer Karl Bernhard, the Turbinenfabrik is considered the first successful application of modernist stylistic elements to an industrial building. Glass and steel were used in place of stone and chisels, and nothing about its function or form is hidden from public view. Contemporaries dubbed it the “machine cathedral”.

But I would certainly recommend a Bauhaus-themed tour of Germany this year. In Thuringia, the towns of Erfurt, Gera and Jena all have architectural landmarks. Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Münster and other cities have houses, factories, dams, foundries and garages built by Bauhaus-influenced modernists (see grandtourofmodernism.com for an interactive map). Before buying our current flat on the 18th floor, my now-husband and I rented a flat on the third floor. That’s how much we loved the building – we knew we wanted to buy here.

Modernist Estates

Modernist Estates provides an inside look at remarkable and sometimes controversial estates in Britain and the impact they have on their communities. Featuring twenty-one modernist homes and their residents, including the Barbican, Isokon, Balfron Tower and Park Hill, it presents an overview of the building, architect, historical and political context. It explores, with fascinating interviews and contemporary photography, what it’s like to live on a modernist estate today. Pretty much all we can do at the moment is go for a walk, so I think people have appreciated having something to do with a bit of a purpose,” she says. “They’re not very expensive, so they are accessible to most people. I hope they are a nice balance between learning a little about the area’s architecture and going for a nice walk!”

A walking tour around Regent’s Park Estate to discuss the masterplan and designs of the new infill housing on the estate. The walk is led by architects Hilary Satchwell (Tibbalds), Alex Ely (Mae) and Matthew Lloyd (Matthew Lloyd Architects). Courses, textbooks and materials are free; all you need are internet access and your own desire to learn. We offer links to tutoring & mentoring. Student Resources If I could change anything about the original design, it would be to have a window in the bathroom for natural light and ventilation. The flats were designed to share air vents in the bathroom with their neighbours and that can mean anything from unpleasant bathroom smells to cigarette smoke drifting between flats, but it’s a small price to pay for so many positives.