<div><p> The assertion by Modernist architect Le Corbusier that houses are 'machines for living in' is hard for all but purists to accept. Most people view houses as homes and want the cosiness that Modernist properties, with their tautglass, steel and concrete forms, do not offer. Their rigid lines appear uncomfortable, austere and lacking the crucial frippery that cheers us up.</p><p> I subscribed to this view until I stayed in six Modernist homes to film a BBC series called Living with Modernism.</p><p> One was Capel Manor in Kent, a wonderful 900 sq. foot steel-supported glass pavilion by Michael Manser. 'The idea that Modernist architecture has to destroy the great theories of light, geometry and proportion is nonsense, ' Manser, the former Riba president and fan of Palladio told me. There are few better examples to confirm his theory than a London flat I visited last week. Number 8 Kensington Palace Gardens, currently on the market, is a 1964 glass-and-steel block designed by Richard Siefert of Siefert and Partners, the prodigious firm who constructed more buildings in London than Christopher Wren, including Centre Point and the Nat West Tower. Flat 3 has been completely renovated by architect David Chipperfield - a former Sir Norman Foster employee - under the astute patronage of owners Carole and Neville Conrad who are patrons of the Tate, the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and trustees of the Architecture Foundation. It is a breathtaking three-bedroom property of classical proportions but with a refined interior that adheres to all the doctrines of Modernism. It has an attention to detail that even Mies Van Der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright would have been impressed by. There is, for example, no air conditioning ('too noisy, and drying' says Carole) but a complex network of plastic tubing hidden beneath the ceiling through which ice-cold water is pumped.</p><p> The effect is remarkable. Heating is provided by turning up the water temperature. Carole does not like taps so all water gushed from discreet holes. Modernists love new technology.</p><p> The sitting room is 60 feet long with 18 foot ceilings, vast windows at each end, and a sensual spiral staircase that flows from a mezzanine bedroom like spilt cream. The bath is carved from a single piece of marble, the dressing room is black walnut and the floors are pietra serena which Michaelangelo used in the Laurentian Library in Florence. The Modernist touch there? 'It's got underfloor heating, ' says Carole.</p><p> An exceptionally important house called Six Pillars, by Berthold Lubetkin's architectural practice, has come onto the market in Dulwich.</p><p> It was designed in 1932 and has four bedrooms, a study, a dining room and a sitting room that is 23 feet by 16 feet. It also has a horseshoe-shaped driveway, a lovely garden and backs onto woodland. The house is named after the six pillars in striking blue that run the length of its frontage. Lubetkin is arguably the most influential figure in the British Modernist movement. He was born in Georgia in 1901 arriving in the UK in 1931 from Paris where he met Le Corbusier. He founded his Tecton practice with six other architects and pioneered high-rise communal living with the landmark Highpoint One in Hampstead. He also designed the deliciously sensual penguin pool at London Zoo.</p><p> Not all Modernist homes are beyond the reach of a modest budget. Take the exceptional Ellis-Miller House in Prickwillow, Cambridgeshire. This is a single-storey glass-and-steel property overlooking the Fens built in the 1980s by Jonathan Ellis-Miller and borrowing heavily from Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood and Mies Van Der Rohe. A derivative property is a great, affordable way to experience Modernist living if it is done well, as this one is.</p><p> It won the 1993 Riba British Steel Awards.</p><p> When it's sunny, it's like a bit of Palm Springs in the shires. You enter through a car port into a large open-plan space with floor to ceiling glass and a central fireplace. There are two bedrooms and planning permission to build an extension, a chance for you to concoct your own modernist ideal.</p><p>© 2006 Spectator Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=36415113&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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