It’s been another big year for us here at The Modern House. From collaborating with our favourite brands to selling some of the country’s most exciting homes, launching a new film series and hosting parties and talks, we’ve packed in a fair amount. Here, we close off the decade with a recap of our 2019.

We represented the country’s best homes
The Modern House exists to make the process of buying and selling a home a more enjoyable, enriching experience. This year we’ve been fortunate enough to apply this service to some of the best homes in the UK, from one-off modernist abodes to ambitious contemporary builds.

It’s been a great year for ‘masterpieces’, which we define as the most architecturally important homes out there. One standout in this genre was architect John Penn’s Beach House in Shingle Street, a low-slung structure built in 1970 for his own use. The sellers, Anne and Bruce Page, reflected on the brilliant simplicity of the design for our ‘Open House’ series.

Another architect’s own home we sold was Walter Segal’s in Highgate, which, in its current condition, is a beautiful meeting of mid-century efficiency with contemporary design flourishes.

New homes continue to inspire us, as we always love to see how architects are responding to the challenges of building in the 21st century. A flat on Weston Street by Roger Zogolovitch’s Solidspace intrigued us; we loved its innovative split-level living format that preferences quality over quantity of space. Another RIBA Award-winning contemporary home was Pobble House, a remarkable contribution to Dungeness’ architectural tradition.

We’ve loved to see how old buildings have been rethought in a modern way this year, and highlights in this category include a reconsidered Grade II-listed cattle barn, a characterful Georgian townhouse in Canonbury and a coach house in Leicester, done up by Joe and Olivia Wilson.

We worked with our favourite brands
This year we worked with likeminded people to celebrate modern living, the value of good design and exceptional craftmanship.

At the beginning of the year, we teamed up with heritage paint manufacturer Farrow & Ball to create a series of films exploring the use of colour in modern living spaces, from design writer Tom Morris’ flat on the Barbican Estate, to artist Alessandra Taccia’s pared-back interior. We even hosted a talk and workshop at our HQ in Southwark, in which guests learned how to use colour at home.

Then, in the summer, we unveiled a bike made with Freddie Grubb as the eco-alternative to the ubiquitous estate agency car. With a black paint job, hand-stitched leather finishes and custom branding, it’s a thing of beauty, and a pleasure to cruise around town on.

Lastly, we collaborated with modern spectacle makers Cubitts on a one-off set of frames styled by The Modern House, complete with 9ct gold hinges and lettering, which we auctioned off in aid of Maggie’s cancer charity. To mark the launch, we checked in on Cubitts founder Tom Broughton, who bought the Isokon Penthouse through us in 2018. The auction raised over £1,000 for Maggie’s, so thank you to everyone who bought tickets for the raffle to support a very worthy cause indeed.

We made our film debut
In addition to working on our Living with Colour team-up with Farrow & Ball, we also made our first in-house film foray with our Master of Design series. The four videos each explore a titan of modern British design and their living space: Richard and Ruth Roger’s Chelsea home, Deyan Sudjic and Sarah Miller’s townhouse, Eva Franch I Gilabert at the Architectural Association and Roger Zogolvitch’s boat-inspired contemporary house by the sea.

We got to meet more of you
This year has seen us meet more of our community face-to-face than ever before, with a range of talks, workshops and parties. We loved hosting Farrow & Ball colour consultants for guests to chat to in a one-day workshop early in the year, and we were thrilled to team up with Benk + Bo for a talk and lunch with architect Chris Dyson at the Spitalfields co-working space and café.

Our summer party was a special one this year. As part of a partnership with Dulwich Picture Gallery, we hosted the evening in Pricegore architect and Yinka Ilori’s 2019 Dulwich Pavilion, ‘The Colour Palace’, outside John Soane’s 1817 building. The variegated 10-metre-high structure, inspired by African prints of Lagos’ Balogun market, made for a riotous backdrop to an evening of mid-year celebration.

To round off the year, we began a new talk series at The Modern House that has so far seen architect Graham Bizley talk about two outstanding houses for himself and his family, and a night given to four speakers who have embarked on their own self-build projects, including Rupert Scott discussing his converted gin distillery and Anna and Russel Hayden who transformed their home into an award winning Passive House designed for comfort and wellbeing.

Join Meredith Bowles, Director of Mole Architects, on Thursday 16th January 2020 as he discusses houses from the last 150 years that have informed his designs for energy efficient, joyful homes – tickets available here.