Modernist Estates: The buildings and the people who live in them

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Prior to moving here, I’d lived in Golden Lane Estate and the Barbican Estate, so I had accumulated quite a few pieces of furniture. I’ve always tended to buy mid-century classics such as a Robin Day sofa, Alvar Aalto table and a George Nelson bed. Not because I want to live in a museum, but because their proportions tend to fit smaller spaces better than modern, bulky furniture. I’ve bought a few pieces specifically for this flat, including an Alfred Roth daybed. My favourite piece of furniture, however, is by the contemporary furniture designer Michael Marriott. I have his Croquet shelving – simple oak uprights with colourful folded sheet steel shelves. I just love them and they’ve moved with me across five different flats over the last 15 years. An impressive two-bedroom duplex apartment in a unique mews in Forest Gate. The building, completed in 2019, was designed by Marcus Lee, formerly a director at the Richard Rogers Partnership, and comprises a studio apartment on the ground floor and this duplex on the top two floors, complete with its own roof terrace.

Neglected Utopia: Photographer explores the forgotten

Built in 1908-9 to designs by architect Peter Behrens and engineer Karl Bernhard, the Turbinenfabrik is considered the first successful application of modernist stylistic elements to an industrial building. Glass and steel were used in place of stone and chisels, and nothing about its function or form is hidden from public view. Contemporaries dubbed it the “machine cathedral”.The first property they marketed was Six Pillars in Dulwich, south London. “ Which is a Tecton house,” Hill says. “Grade II*.” Although it was already on the market with another agency, Hill and Gibberd called the owner and told him about their fledgling company. “He said: ‘Great, let’s do it!’” Hill recalls. “He said the other agency didn’t understand the house.” There are three distinct parts to each ‘chapter’ in this book and these can be rated separately as follows If I could change anything about the original design, it would be to have a window in the bathroom for natural light and ventilation. The flats were designed to share air vents in the bathroom with their neighbours and that can mean anything from unpleasant bathroom smells to cigarette smoke drifting between flats, but it’s a small price to pay for so many positives. But for the older locals who live there, these ambitious yet dated modernist buildings are what they call home and have been for most of their lives. Photographer Laurent Kronental was so moved by the living conditions of the Ensembles, he wanted to shed light on their older residents, people who are sometimes regarded as a forgotten generation.

Modernist Estates: The buildings and the people who live in them Modernist Estates: The buildings and the people who live in them

Sprowston Mews is located five minutes walk from Forest Gate train station, and is home to an emerging creative community of architects and self-builders, inspired by the experimental mews house-building of the 1960s, such as Murray Mews in Camden. We had lived in the better-known Isokon building for six years and dreamt of living in Berthold Lubetkin’s Highpoint in Highgate but couldn’t afford it, so it had to be a 1930s building of architectural merit. Whitehall Lodge has plenty of original features, and also a generous landscaped garden. Muswell Hill is a very nice part of north London, a real village with lots of small shops and cafés. Sumptuous photographs and interesting accompanying text about the many modernist estates in Britain.Round haus … designed in 1929 by Bauhaus architect Carl Fieger, the Kornhaus restaurant is on the River Elbe near Dessau. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/Getty Images By and large the interiors have a hipster-ish vibe to them, and unsurprisingly Shoreditch gets a few mentions, along with Bethnal Green and Barbican etc, and every other person seems to be an architect or graphic designer, so this is very much a glimpse at how the other half live. Most of the interiors have a clinical yet relaxed and liveable feel, but for all the middle-class, Guardian-reading vibes, many of the locations’ best days are behind them, and author Stefi Orazi doesn’t shy away from admitting this. I would like that people could discover, with so much surprise as I was able to have, the large estates landscapes. I would wish that they feel so much fascination and curiosity with regard to such constructions. I want that we wonder about the future of these districts, that we pay attention to their population put aside. I knew a little bit about the building before I moved here. The scheme was part of Camden’s ‘golden era’ of housing along with estates such as the Highgate New Town in Archway by Peter Tabori, and Alexandra Road in Swiss Cottage by Neave Brown. These young and progressive architects rejected the trend for high-rise developments that had been popular after the war in favour of good quality, well-planned, low-rise buildings. I think Bauhaus was a very German phenomenon,” says Bettina. “We were very late to industrialise. It responded to a need to re-educate craftsmen and catch up with France and the UK. The first world war had destroyed nationalism of the imperial kind and 1919 was a new dawn.”

Sprowston Mews II → Modernist Estates Sprowston Mews II → Modernist Estates

Güldner tells me: “There was no need for embellishment or overcrowding. Buildings could be newer and better, without copying anything that had already been. Beauty was born out of finding a solution to the question: what is useful?” With its striking stepped-concrete terraces, the Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate is the most famous of the social housing schemes built during Camden’s “golden age” in the 1960s and 1970s. Rowley Way was built between 1972-78 by the revered Modernist architect Neave Brown and has been given a rate Grade II* listing by English Heritage in recognition of its architectural significance. We weren’t even seriously looking, and I just said: ‘Let’s just go look at this house this weekend.’ It was the sort of house I’d always loved; it was geographically just about doable; it was just about workable for work; it wasn’t too far from London; it was near a town that looked nice …” That was in April. In July, they put in an offer. “It took us a really long time to get over taking that leap,” she says. “And in the end we just realised we would never know if it was right for us unless we just did it.” Modernist Estates” is an attractive, sumptuous book reflecting the modern taste for modernist/brutalist architecture. It covers works by Goldfinger, SPAN, etc with brief architectural scene-setting for each development, interviews with the householder(s) and a series of interior shots. Of course, the Grands Ensembles are usually full of life but Laurent wanted to create an atmosphere of there being a "parallel world mixing past and future while consciously conveying the impression of towns that would be emptied of their residents".I’ve been interested in Modernist architecture since I moved to the Barbican when I first came to London in the late 1990s,” she tells CR. “During my studio’s early years, I spent quiet periods illustrating Modernist buildings – such as the Barbican – and producing limited edition prints and cards. I then began selling them through my online shop, Things You Can Buy.” The exterior of each complex is featured, along with an informative article about how the building was designed and what its fate has become over time. Then a resident is interviewed with a standard set of questions and there is a set of stunning photographs of the interior of their homes. It's amazing how much beauty can be found even in the most brutal of brutalist structures! What sparked the interest for Laurent? "I was influenced by my experience in China where I lived for six months in 2008, where I also discovered photography" he tells Creative Boom. "The big cities of this territory stunned me by their gigantic size, their tentacular immoderation, their paradoxes, their metamorphosises, their contrasts and the way the human being lives in this abundant and overpopulated town planning. I was literally absorbed by the atmosphere of the megalopolis and by its astounding mix of futurism and tradition. It certainly unconsciously stimulated the search for a juxtaposition of ages in my later projects." The online platform, Modernist Estates, has for several years been an essential go-to source for those interested in the many excellent and often under-appreciated housing estates produced by 20th century architects, many on behalf of local authorities. Having previously published a review of UK examples, mostly around London, Stefi Orazi has now taken the format across Europe to 15 estates from Scandinavia to Spain, and covering a period from the early 1930s right up to the completion of Neave Brown’s Medina project in Eindhoven in 2002. However, in a pointed introduction, the author makes it clear that the European approach transcended geographical boundaries as evidenced by the inclusion of high quality estates in both Birmingham and Edinburgh.

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An express train takes me to Weimar, 280km south-west of Berlin. The founders of the Weimar Republic met there (also in 1919) because the city was as politically neutral as was possible in post-first world war Germany. They hoped for spiritual guidance from Weimar’s intellectual ghosts: former residents include Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche and Liszt. A unique studio apartment on the ground floor of a new building in Forest Gate, designed by Marcus Lee, formerly a director at the Richard Rogers Partnership. The accommodation benefits from its own private entrance and comprises a spacious open-plan room with a fitted plywood kitchen, a sleeping area, and a large en-suite bathroom with a walk-in shower. Polished concrete floors with underfloor heating run throughout. The couple moved here in the autumn of 2015, shortly after the birth of their second child, leaving behind their two-bedroom flat with cantilevered stairs on the Golden Lane estate in London. “It was tiny,” says Bella. “Our living space was the size of what is now our playroom. And that was fine when we had one child. But then we were hankering after more space, and this place came up …” Pretty much all we can do at the moment is go for a walk, so I think people have appreciated having something to do with a bit of a purpose,” she says. “They’re not very expensive, so they are accessible to most people. I hope they are a nice balance between learning a little about the area’s architecture and going for a nice walk!”What a very interesting and a amazing read. I do judge a book by its cover and I loved this books cover so nice and simple just drew me into reading it. I didn't actually read what the book was about but I was pleasantly surprised that not only was was it a fantastic history of modernist architecture but also show pictures of an apartment and about the people who live their to. It was brilliant I loved every minute of this book. I learnt so much from reading this book and also learning about the types of people choosing to live in these very unique buildings. The questions the author asked each resident were so interesting and made for brilliant reading. I must admit modernist buildings are not my cup of tea but it still fascinated me and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading the books. The layout of the book was brilliant. I loved all the photographs included in this book. The only thing I would of liked to see more of was a picture from the same angle of the buildings present day to see the comparison of of when it was build to todays picture. This book would certainly be of interest to architecture buffs, as well as people interested in engineering, urban planning, and postwar English history, but I think almost anyone could appreciate the gorgeous pictures and unique look at a distinct time in modern history. There are some downsides – the flats are cold, not just because of the single glazing in most flats but because there are historically only two hot water radiators across two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room. The walls are also relatively thin, as reinforced concrete was such a new technique at the time. We have a lot of wool blankets and Scandinavian sweaters! Each week in our new ‘Spotlight on’ series a member of The Modern House team will select their favourite properties – past and present – within one of the Collections categories.