Archive

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Richard Neutra-designed Haus Kemper in Wuppertal, Germany

May 25, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

rn4

rn1

rn

rn2

rn3

Richard Neutra (1892-1970) was born in Austria, spent the majority of his working life in the United States where became one of their most successful architects, and died in Wuppertal, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Most famous for his houses, in the last 10 years of his life Neutra had eight villas constructed in Europe; four in Switzerland, three in Germany and one in France. Haus Kemper in Wuppertal, Germany, is one of these houses and it has now come onto the market for €2.4 million (circa £2 million). Designed in 1965, architecturally-speaking the house brought modernism back into Europe, and with it the American way of life. The house sits on a plot of 25,000 square metres and is laid out over 380 square metres over two floors, with everything from an au pair room and ‘gentlemen’s room’. Its special Neutra features include overhanging floor plates and structures, fully glazed walls, fireplaces and pool which runs up to the very boundary of the house. The house has had some recent work to the bathrooms, heating and insulation, as well as some adaptations to the paint scheme on the exterior.

Wuppertal itself is known for its steep slopes, woods and parks and its suspension railway. Two-thirds of the total municipal area of Wuppertal is green space. From any part of the city, it is only a ten-minute walk to one of the public parks or woodland paths.

For modern properties for sale and to let in the UK, visit: The Modern House

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Contemporary property for sale on Lake Geneva

May 11, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

g6

g2

g

g7

This four-bedroom house on Lake Geneva, near the village of Maxilly, has just come on the market for €2.5 million (£2.1 million). Completed in 2009, the house is split over two levels to make the most of the views over the local mountains of the Mémises and Dent d’Oche. On the ground floor is an open plan living space with kitchen and dining area that opens out in all directions to the terraces and garden. The first floor includes a master bedroom with ensuite as well as the remaining bedrooms and a family bathroom. The house has a full basement with a garage and storage area, children’s area, laundry room, wine cellar and an open room which could become a home cinema area. Constructed from precast concrete panels and using such a bold lines, overhangs and terraces, house is uncompromising in its modernity but sits effectively and strikingly in its mountainous landscape, while its openness makes it a fantastic vantage point to take advantage of the stunning scenery.

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Broughton House by Craig Ellwood, Los Angeles

May 4, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

ce5

ce6

This house by Craig Ellwood (1922-1992) in Los Angeles is on the market for $799,000 (£515,000). Located in Beverly Hills and designed in 1949, it has three bedrooms and was a precursor to the architect’s LA Case Study Houses 16, 17 and 18. Miesian-style steel beams support curtain windows with hillside views. Despite not having formal training in the profession, Craig Ellwood is one of the classic modernist Californian architects of the 1950s to 1970s, and became well-known and highly regarded, even teaching at Yale University. He set up Craig Ellwood Design in 1951 with his brother and two friends, with whom he had served in the war. Although Ellwood was the chief designer, the practice always contained a trained architect in order to sign off the drawings.

Ellwood was born Jon Nelson Burke. The name of his practice was inspired by a liquor store called Lords and Elwood located in front of his office. He later legally changed his own name to Ellwood.

For modern properties for sale and to let in the UK, visit: The Modern House

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Le Corbusier House in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, near Lyon, France

April 28, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

cor

corb2

Despite its name, this is not a Le Corbusier-designed property. But nevertheless, it is an interesting mid-century house all the same. Located in 8,000 square metres of private land on the outskirts of Lyon in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, France, the house was completed in 1961 and contains many of the features that Le Corbusier included in his domestic architecture. The house has the external spiral stair inspired by Atelier Ozenfant; the horizontal strip windows and view framing openings from La Villa Savoye; the external walkways found at Villa Lipchitz-Miestchaninoff and the multiple-level sun terraces designed for Villa de Madame Manorama Sarabhai, Ahmedabad, India. Perhaps it is a shame the latter’s concrete slide from the first floor into the swimming pool hasn’t also been replicated. With five-bedroom house, it is for sale for €1,950,000 (£1,644,000).

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Owl and Beaver House

April 20, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

owl

Owl and Beaver House by Valentino Agnoli is an example of organic architecture – a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. In its many forms, organic architecture relates to materiality, composition within landscape, ordering principles and motifs. In its other rarer forms, organic architecture is inspired directly and visibly by the forms found in nature from fauna to flora. Amongst its proteges, organic architecture includes Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto. Completed in 1997, Owl and Beaver House near Lake City in Florida is in the latter of the organic architecture groupings mentioned here. It is a raised curvilinear sculptural building set in six acres of forested land on the Ichetucknee river. The house was designed as a writer’s retreat and is now for sale for $550,000 (£360,000). It is up in the trees of an ancient cypress forest like a tree house, and it has views of the tops of trees and the river from it’s huge windows. With 600 square feet of space, the house contains a kitchen/dining room, living room, bedroom and bath on the main floor and a bedroom under the bow.

For modern properties for sale and to let in the UK, visit: The Modern House

 

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: British-born comedian Bob Hope’s John Lautner house in Palm Springs

April 13, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

bh0

bh

bh1a

bh1

Bob Hope (1903-2003) was born in Eltham, London, to a stonemason father and light opera singer-cum-cleaner mother. The fifth of seven sons, Hope became a sensation in the United States where he made his fortune in entertainment. One of his many legacies is a home he commissioned by the American architect John Lautner in 1973, which has now come onto the market for $50 million (£32 million). Located in Palm Springs, California, the massive 23,000 sq m house is the most expensive property in an area overwhelmed by celebrity mansions. It was completed in 1979, having had to be built for a second time after a fire burnt it down. The design is inspired by the surrounding mountainous landscape. Its roof blankets the interior spaces, including six bedrooms, in the form of a volcano with a large opening in the centre. The overall effect of the house, however, is rather space-age. For Lautner, the project ended on a sour note as his relationship with Hope deteriorated regarding its architectural integrity; hence Lautner preferred to be remembered for his other flights of glass-and-concrete fancy around Los Angeles. For modern properties on the market in the UK, visit: The Modern House

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Raphaëlle Segond house in the south of France

March 24, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

gr

gr1

gr2

gr3

Designed by the French architect Raphaëlle Segond on the heights Grimaud, just along from Saint Tropez on the French Riviera, this contemporary house has recently come onto the market for an asking price of $4,902,000 (just over £3.2 million). Maison Beauvallon was completed in 2011 and takes advantage of views from the terrace across the Gulf of Saint Tropez. The house itself is 2,700 square feet over two levels and sits within a garden planted with oaks and arbutus of 25,725 square feet. The house comprises five bedrooms, one separate from the house in the grounds, as well as an entrance hall, kitchen, dining room and two bright rooms overlooking a large terrace sheltered by the roof overhang and vegetation. On the first floor are the living room and master bedroom overlooking the pool, which is located on the roof of several rooms, including a bedroom. The house makes best use of its setting, making the most of its landscape by ensuring the outdoor space becomes part of the internal living space via its visual connection through the glazing, but also its terraces and rooms that are spread around the site with full height sliding windows access onto the garden. Architecturally the house is of great merit because of its highly laboured poured concrete béton brut, where the imprint of the timber shuttering is visible both internally and externally. Resonant of its setting, some walls are clad with the cork oak bark of Massif des Maures – the small mountain range that lies along 60km of the coastline. For other modern properties for sale in the UK, visit: The Modern House

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Tonkens House by Frank Lloyd Wright, Cincinnati

February 23, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

a

b

c

d

Tonkens House by Frank Lloyd Wright is available for purchase for the first time in its history. Set in four private acres of parkland, the house is located next to French Park in Amberley Village in the city of Cincinnati and has been continuously lived in by the Tonkens family since its construction. The house comprises of three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, study and two bathrooms, and the sale includes the all the original Frank Lloyd Wright-designed furniture specified for the residence. Tonkens House was completed in 1955 and is a fine example of the Usonian Automatic home. Its particular architectural interest is its modular construction from customised concrete blocks of which there are 11 different pattens. These make up the entire facade of the building, and even internal walls. These blocks can be solid wall bricks, corner bricks or even infilled with glazing to form windows of varying sizes and positions. These blocks aimed to simplify construction and increase the ‘honesty’ of materials. They are also somewhat of a precursor for the architecture of the 1960s and 1970s that followed. The house is for sale for $1,788,000 (£1.1 million).

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: Martinelli Residence by Anthony Ames, Connecticut

February 17, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

ames 1

ames 2

ames

With as many bedrooms as garages, this house designed by the architect Anthony Ames in Connecticut is for sale for $4.8million (£3million). Designed in 1988, the house is distinctly postmodern. The windows take their inspiration from the Bauhaus-style glazed panes of the 1920s and 1930s International Style. The house turns these, however, upside down, as postmodern did, by distorting their inspirational styles in particular ways – in this case the panes are far too large. The house is defined also by its architectural era because of its merged bold primary forms. With 4,000 square feet of living space and three bedrooms, oak floors, plastered walls and custom cabinetry are featured throughout. Located in Roxbury at the end of a long curving drive, the house sits in ten acres of its own gently rolling meadow.

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET: James Grose’s Te Whare Hoiho in New Zealand

February 9, 2013
WHAT'S ON THE MARKET

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET

u

t

p

i

y

This single-storey, three-bedroom holiday home was designed by Australian architect James Grose in collaboration with builders in New Zealand. The property is located in the heart of Bay of Islands, a popular resort area in the northern part of the North Island. In 2008, it won the New Zealand Master Builder’s “Home of the Year” award. The house combines a steel frame with corrugated iron cladding and extensive use of double-paned sliding glass windows. These materials give the building a lightness that makes it sit easily in the landscape. The property also has an outdoor covered deck that looks out onto remarkable views of typical New Zealand watery scenery. The house is for sale for 1.4million USD (£886,000).

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,423 other followers

%d bloggers like this: