Issue No.2 of The Modern House Magazine is here

The 2021 spring/summer edition of The Modern House magazine is here. As the world begins to tentatively open up, we’ve filled 135 pages with optimistic, uplifting stories that will guide you through the season ahead. From interiors to food, architecture to design, gardening to foraging, we explore modern living through original photography, artwork, opinion pieces, interviews and more. Pick up your copy now.

This issue includes a trip to Upper Lawn, a humble “camp box” deep in the Wiltshire countryside, built by the pioneering new brutalist architects Alison and Peter Smithson in the early 1950s as a rural getaway to observe the passing of the seasons. On the Devon coast, cook Gill Meller lives a life similarly observant of nature’s rhythms and cooks a simple lunch from his allotment that showcases the virtues of a summertime tomato. In the Peak District, we discover an intergenerational pursuit for good, everyday design at the David Mellor headquarters.

We’ve travelled abroad for this issue too. In Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture, we visit the countryside retreat of Ryo Kashiwazaki, founder of leather brand Hender Scheme, whose century-old traditional farmhouse is a place to slow down away from his working life in Tokyo. In the city, meanwhile, we meet Terry Ellis, whose old-school tatami-covered apartment is filled with things that demonstrate his love for Japanese and African craft, reggae and mid-century Scandinavian furniture. In South Africa, the story of hotel and farm Babylonstoren is told by its beekeeper, chef, head gardener and winemaker on a single day in high summer.

After a year of living at home, what does the future hold for our domestic spaces? We’ve asked names including Sumayya Vally, Deyan Sudjic and Barber & Osgerby for their takes. Discover which 10 books Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist thinks architects should read – that aren’t about architecture. In the first of our Portfolio pieces, an original series of artworks by image-maker Leandro Farina reworks everyday found materials into monumental, sculptural scenes. Discover all this and more in The Modern House Magazine No.2.