Inspiration: Memories of Modernism

Inspiration The Modern House
Inspiration, The Modern House
Inspiration, The Modern House
Albert Hill, The Modern House

For our Inspiration series, staff at The Modern House were asked to list the location, film, painting, building, or piece of music that first inspired their interest in Modernism.

For our Founding Director, Albert Hill, there wasn’t one single structure or place that fuelled his interest, but rather, a series of formative experiences which he recalls from his childhood.

Albert says:

‘When it comes to my love of Modern architecture, I suppose I have a few formative experiences. My uncle designing and building his own house in Wales is my earliest memory of connecting with architecture.

I vividly recall the completion of George Finch’s Brixton Recreation Centre as a young boy. It was a place that we went as a family every week, and it was always so impressive. It felt, and indeed still feels, very rooted in the community.

I also remember frequently sneaking into Brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson’s holiday home in Wiltshire as a teenager during the time that it was empty and abandoned as it was in the same village as a friend of mine lived. It has now been restored to its former glory by some London-based graphic designers.

Seeing the Pompidou Centre and I. M. Pei’s pyramid on a school trip to Paris was also something that made a big, and lasting, impression on me.’

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