Architecture
Altared Visions
Hidden in cities and villages around Slovakia, these unique wedding halls, built during the 1960s–1980s, display an usual post-modern design typology. Adam Stech accompanies Sabina Jankovičová, author of a new book on this creative phenomenon, to these altars of aesthetic intervention
LATEST STORIES
Miroslav Zikmund’s Villa is a modern antithesis of the Communist aesthetic
In a masterful move by Miroslav Zikmund, the adventurer commissioned a bold new house from a pioneering Czech Modernist
Author: Adam Štěch
Was Friedensreich Hundertwasser high on extra-thick bleach when he designed these wonderfully wonky public loos?
In Kawakawa, a town on New Zealand’s North Island, artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s public loos – wildly tiled and all askew – turned architecture upside down. For all the wonk, it’s pretty flush, says Bill McKay
Author: Bill McKayPhotographer: Derek Henderson
Thoroughly Modernist milieu: Otto Saumarez Smith’s meticulous makeover of a 1950s flat
How Otto Saumarez Smith’s home in central London became a faithful homage to Modernist aesthetics, from Festival of Britain flourishes to those early-era Corbusian colours
Author: Lily Le BrunPhotographer: Adam Firman
The humanist architecture that inspired Nova Scotia House
Charlie Porter’s latest novel, Nova Scotia House, takes inspiration from the humanist architecture of Berthold Lubetkin’s modernist estates, Horace Gifford’s queer, carefree homes on Fire Island and the riverside warehouses Derek Jarman occupied in the 1970s
Author: Charlie Porter

Hawaiian Modernism: a definitive guide
Modernism found a distinctive expression on the Hawaiian islands, thanks both to their isolation and the arrival of immigrant architects. In Honolulu, one can find extraordinary mid-century houses tailored to the tropical climate
Writer: Adam ŠtěchPhotographer: Adam Štěch
Agustín Hernández’s 1970s home that blends Modernist principles with pre-Hispanic influences
The 1970s Valner house in Mexico City displays architect Agustín Hernández’s love of eye-catching geometry. He made Pythagoras glamorous, as Susana Ordovás discovers
Author: Susana Ordovás Photographer: Ricardo Labougle
One for the birds: the dovecotes of Tinos have a rich history
Scattered across the island of Tinos in the Cyclades are hundreds of ornately detailed dovecotes dating back centuries or, in more Modernist guise, to the 1970s. Coo-ee, exclaims Tom Morris
Author: Tom MorrisPhotographer: Heiko Prigge
Hallfield monitor: a radical 1950s primary school designed by Denys Lasdun
In the 1950s, architects Denys Lasdun and Lindsey Drake designed everything at Hallfield primary school in Paddington – down to the trapezoidal tables – with young people’s welfare in mind. One-time supply teacher Ella Blackburn returns to where she was ‘a visitor in the children’s world’
Author: Ella Blackburn
Not any old iron: the everyday charm of ornate metal grills on Greek doors
Christopher Stocks has developed quite an infatuation with the infinite variety of Greek entryways, with their ornate ironwork and fascinating hidden histories
Author: Christopher StocksPhotographer: Christopher Stocks
From the archive: architect Terry Dwan’s heavenly hillside home
When she discovered a plot high above Portofino the architect Terry Dwan was truly smitten. No matter that it was full of old washing-machines, subject to byzantine building restrictions and accessible only by buggy. After an epic uphill battle, that fly-tip now feels like heaven
Author: Elfreda Pownall Photographer: Ricardo Labougle
Problem Solvay: this Art Nouveau hôtel complicates our picture of Victor Horta’s idiom
When one of Art Nouveau’s most illustrious architects, Victor Horta, was given free rein on a four-storey house in the centre of Brussels, his vision was perhaps a touch too ambitious. Nevertheless, Hôtel Solvay remains a feat of finely wrought design
Author: Leendert de VosPhotographer: Alixe Lay
Scarpa, quick! Take a tour of a little-known architectural masterpiece in Italy
Despite the political tensions in postwar Emilia-Romagna, accord of sorts did reign in Parma’s seat of power – thanks to architect Carlo Scarpa, whose modernist-meets-classical council chamber there has just opened to the public for the first time in 70 years
Author: Owen HatherleyPhotographer: Manfredi Gioacchini
The Full Brazilian: Casa Cavanelas is a dramatic piece of Latin Modernism
Just north of Rio, two greats of their field – architect Oscar Niemeyer and landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx – went all out in a triumph of Latin Modernism
Author: Isabela OnoPhotographer: Matthieu Salvaing
What The Brutalist can teach us about good design
The much-celebrated film has also faced criticism from professionals for its departures from industry truths. Kristofer Thomas has concrete proof that its deeper design lesson is based on strong foundations
Author: Kristofer Thomas