Architect's houses: Discover the homes of Norman Foster, Frank Gehry and Ray and Charles Eames
Sheep-Shearer's Quarters, Australia (Home of architect John Wardle)
Being an architect isn’t all wearing collarless shirts and talking about Le Corbusier in the Groucho Club. Away from the office, they also have regular lives with the same worries and hassle with the council as the rest of us.
However, unlike, say bus drivers or asbestos salesmen, they actively like taking their work home them, no more so than when they’re designing their own houses.
Longbranch, Puget Sound, Washington State (Home of architect Jim Olson)
La Voile, Cap Ferrat, France (Home of architect Norman Foster)
Tower House, Ulster County, New York State (Home of architects Peter and Thomas Gluck)
Baan Naam, Venice, California (Home of architect Kulapat Yantrasast)
The best of these have been collated in a new book, Architects Houses, written by Michael Webb. It features in-depth looks at the houses of architects like Norman Foster, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, who talk about what home means to them and the thinking behind their designs.
The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and sketches, and if you don’t feel searing pang of jealousy when you see the streamlined modernism of Cristián Undurraga’s coastal home then you’re a better person than us.
House of the Poem of the Right Angle, Chile (Home of architect Smiljan Radic)
Haus in Berg, Germany (Home of architect Susanne Nobis)
Away from the contemporary dwellings, there’s also a look at over 200 years of architects’ housing with features on the homes of figures like Charles and Ray Eames, and Frank Gehry. There’s even a profile of Thomas Jefferson’s gorgeous palladian pile, Monticello.
While owning one of these places is beyond the reach of most of us, we can all find inspiration in these stunning homes. Whether we wear a collarless shirt or not.
Architects Houses is published by Thames & Hudson, out now.