There has also been a shift in our approach to location. When the Modern House launched, it broke with the conventional estate agent model of serving only one geographical area. “Instead, we celebrate the house and try and attract people from beyond that area,” says Gibberd. By and large the interiors have a hipster-ish vibe to them, and unsurprisingly Shoreditch gets a few mentions, along with Bethnal Green and Barbican etc, and every other person seems to be an architect or graphic designer, so this is very much a glimpse at how the other half live. Most of the interiors have a clinical yet relaxed and liveable feel, but for all the middle-class, Guardian-reading vibes, many of the locations’ best days are behind them, and author Stefi Orazi doesn’t shy away from admitting this.

Modernist Estates Sprowston Mews → Modernist Estates

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 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!” The exterior of each complex is featured, along with an informative article about how the building was designed and what its fate has become over time. Then a resident is interviewed with a standard set of questions and there is a set of stunning photographs of the interior of their homes. It's amazing how much beauty can be found even in the most brutal of brutalist structures! Sprowston Mews is located five minutes walk from Forest Gate train station, and is home to an emerging creative community of architects and self-builders, inspired by the experimental mews house-building of the 1960s, such as Murray Mews in Camden. Forest Gate is named after the southern gate to Epping Forest, one of the largest expanses of common land in London. Wanstead Flats, with its 450 acres of heathland, are within a fifteen minutes’ walk. It is incredibly well connected with frequent trains to Liverpool Street via Elizabeth line taking just 13 minutes. Wanstead Park and Woodgrange Park are on the Overground with trains to Gospel Oak and Barking.

Round haus … designed in 1929 by Bauhaus architect Carl Fieger, the Kornhaus restaurant is on the River Elbe near Dessau. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/Getty Images We looked at ten different places before buying a fourth-floor, west-facing flat. We loved the big living area, huge window and clever circulation with access from one bedroom to the other. 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. As the 1920s wore on, Weimar became increasingly conservative and, in 1925, Gropius moved Bauhaus 130km north-east to Dessau. Home to the Junker aeroplane factory, this city had a strong tradition of industrial design and it was here the movement reached its apogee. A short walk from Dessau’s main station is the movement’s radical-looking glass-fronted HQ, the Bauhaus Building. Commissioned by the city, it was designed by Gropius and built in 1925-26 to house the various departments of a school that taught everything from furniture design to architecture to typography.

Modernist Estates Modernist Estates

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 Prior to moving here, I’d lived in Golden Lane Estate and the Barbican Estate, so I had accumulated quite a few pieces of furniture. I’ve always tended to buy mid-century classics such as a Robin Day sofa, Alvar Aalto table and a George Nelson bed. Not because I want to live in a museum, but because their proportions tend to fit smaller spaces better than modern, bulky furniture. I’ve bought a few pieces specifically for this flat, including an Alfred Roth daybed. My favourite piece of furniture, however, is by the contemporary furniture designer Michael Marriott. I have his Croquet shelving – simple oak uprights with colourful folded sheet steel shelves. I just love them and they’ve moved with me across five different flats over the last 15 years. During this guided walk, the architects will be discussing their respective designs and the challenges and opportunities of infill housing and estate regeneration. As part of the tour, we will also talk through Camden Council’s programme to upgrade the open and green spaces on the estate. The construction (from 1959) is less robust than what we were used to in the Barbican Estate and sound thermal insulation is less than ideal. It would be hard to improve either of those as the pivoting Crittal windows mean that secondary glazing is problematic. We designed and installed a glass screen between the kitchen and living room as someone before us widened the original opening and we wanted to enclose the kitchen but also make sure it looked visually open.

I’ve been interested in Modernist architecture since I moved to the Barbican when I first came to London in the late 1990s,” she tells CR. “During my studio’s early years, I spent quiet periods illustrating Modernist buildings – such as the Barbican – and producing limited edition prints and cards. I then began selling them through my online shop, Things You Can Buy.” This geographical spread and chronology is interesting as it reminds us that Modernism in these terms is much more than a stylistic label. Although the examples selected include Le Corbusier’s Unite in Marseilles and works by Arne Jacobsen, there are also projects by Aldo Rossi and Ricardo Bofill, architects who defy easy categorisation as orthodox modernists. 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). 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. The lower end of the market always sells so well,” says Hill. “One of the founding principles was: it’s not about price, it really is about design, and we’ve always tried to keep as broad a price spectrum as we can.”

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

Jazz age … the Ellington Hotel, Berlin, a regular haunt of the eponymous Duke. Photograph: Peter Delius/Alamy Overview of development- 5 stars - a model of concision perfectly explaining the context and complemented by well chosen photographs of the estate at the time of first completion.Sprowston Mews is located five minutes walk from Forest Gate train station, and is home to an emerging creative community of architects and self-builders, inspired by the experimental mews house-building of the 1960s, such as Murray Mews in Camden.