The Second World War provided architects with many opportunities, large and small. This contemporary terrace of six houses in Hampstead owes its origins to a V2 bomb, which destroyed a row of grand Victorian villas, designed with their principal rooms to overlook the Heath to the south. The new buildings were designed by Bill Howell and Stanley Amis, who went on to form the firm Howell Killick Partridge & Amis in 1959. Howell discovered the site in the early 50s, and the houses were designed for his own family, for Amis, and for four other friends and close clients.

The end result is a project of remarkable coherence. Each house was custom built to the needs of its original owner, using a common system of proportion derived from Le Corbusier’s Modulor.

Our From the Archive series takes excerpts and images from ‘The Modern House’ by Jonathan Bell, Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill – a publication written and produced to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Produced in 2015, this book offers our own distinctive snapshot of what it means to live in a modern way in Britain.