As a curator, perhaps there’s no space that better encapsulates Glenn Adamson than his own rainbow-hued house, which looks more like something you’d find in Wonderland than Upstate New York. And, as our podcast host, Matt Gibberd, discovered when he met Glenn for this episode of Homing In – on which guests discuss a home from their past, present and future – the other places in his life (or perhaps the way he spoke about them) are equally enchanting. Here Matt waxes lyrical about his encounter with, as he puts it, “one of the most erudite people I know.”

“Glenn’s a brilliant curator and writer with a particular interest in craft. If that conjures up an image of lace doilies and crocheted waistcoats, then don’t panic!

“Back in 2011, he put together the amazing ‘Postmodernism’ exhibition at the V&A in London, which was a riot of Memphis pattern and colour; and more recently, he’s co-curated a show called ‘Mirror Mirror’ at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, with original work by designers like Max Lamb, Samuel Ross and my own lady wife, Faye Toogood.

“Glenn writes beautifully – and his book Fewer, Better Things was a really big influence on my own book, A Modern Way to Live. A phrase he uses a lot is ‘material intelligence’, which is the idea that we should try to understand the things we choose to live with – where they’ve come from and how they’ve been made.

“I don’t know if it’s material intelligence or old-fashioned fate that led Glenn to find his home in Upstate New York, but it really is the physical manifestation of everything he believes in. It’s impeccably crafted, slightly bonkers and like no other place I’ve ever seen before.

“When we had our conversation, he told me about how much it means to him on an emotional level. We chatted about his place in east London (where we recorded this episode), what it’s like to be an identical twin, his thoughts on the metaverse and all sorts of other things. Glenn is one of the most erudite people I know and his thoughtfulness is something we could all learn from.”

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