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Inside Iconic Houses - 28 April: Tour of Maison Cazenave
Inside Iconic Houses - Online Tour Program
Welcome Atelier Volten!
Inside Iconic Houses Tours Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami
Casa Masó Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary
Inside Iconic Houses tours Roland Reisley's Usonian Frank Lloyd Wright House
Rietveld’s Experimental Housing in Reeuwijk Saved
Serralves Villa after restoration
Watch Pioneers of the Dutch Modern House Now On Demand
Portraits of the Architect - Interview with Gennaro Postiglione
Test Labs for New Ideas - Interview with Natascha Drabbe
Inside Iconic Houses - Isokon Building
Inside Iconic Houses - 16 December: Sunnylands with Janice Lyle
BCN-BXL Coderch-De Koninck - Beyond Time
New Chairman Architect Nanne de Ru on The Perfect Platform
Health and Home - Interview with Beatriz Colomina
A Life Less Ordinary – Interview with Valentijn Carbo
Invisible Women - Interview with Alice T. Friedman
Winy Maas on the Green Dip
Anita Blom on Experimental Housing of the 1970s
Women’s Worlds - Interview with Natalie Dubois
The Culture of Living - Interview with Robert von der Nahmer
Hetty Berens: A Fresh Take on Modernism
Niek Smit on Supporting Modern Heritage
Alice Roegholt on Amsterdam’s Working-Class Palaces
July is Iconic Houses Month
Save Maison Zilveli - Sign the Petition!
How a Building Tells a Story - Recorded Event
Toolkit for Owners of a Modern House
13 Aalto Sites Nominated for UNESCO World Heritage
Villa Beer At Risk - Sign the Petition!
Business Cards of Stone, Timber and Concrete in the Brussels Region 1830-1970
Exhibiting & Visiting Modernist Monuments
Fostering Well-Researched Responsible Design
ICONS AT RISK
Enjoy a virtual visit to the California House and a Q&A with architect Peter Gluck
Exhibition 'Modernism and Refuge'
A Hidden Gem of Postmodernism
New Centre for Historic Houses of India
An Online Chronicle of the Douglas House
SPECIAL – Northern (High)Lights!
SPECIAL - Casas Icónicas en España!
SPECIAL - Vacances en France!
SPECIAL – Iconic Dreams - Sleep in an Iconic House!
SPECIAL – Dutch Delights!
SPECIAL – German Greats!
Villa Henny, geometric style icon in The Netherlands
A Mendini temple in Amsterdam
IH-lectures USA & Canada Feb 2020 on Melnikov House
An Afternoon with the Glucks
Danish Moderns – Looking Back at Our Mini-Seminar
Venturo house complements Exhibition Centre WeeGee’s offering
Lecture report: Remembering Richard Neutra
Hôtel Mezzara and the Guimard Museum project
We welcome 13 new members!
BREAKING NEWS: 8 Wright Sites Inscribed on Unesco World Heritage List!
LECTURE 29 August - Raymond Neutra: My Father and Frank Lloyd Wright
Iconic Reads
SPECIAL – Iconic Artist Residencies
Our Badge of Honour
SPECIAL – Women & Iconic Houses
SPECIAL – Iconic Housing
Iconic Houses End Year Message
City-ordered rebuild of landmark house stirs debate: Appropriate or overreach?
Kohlberg House Restoration in Progress
Planned Demolition of Rietveld Homes in Reeuwijk
Renovation Gili House in Crisis
An Iconic Saga
Restoring Eileen Gray’s Villa E-1027 and Clarifying the Controversies
Modernism on the East Coast
Iconic Houses in Latin America
House Tours May 2018
Expert Meetings
Terence Riley -KEYNOTE SPEAKER- on Philip Johnson
New era for Villa E-1027 and Cap Moderne
Jorge Liernur -KEYNOTE SPEAKER- on Latin American Modernism(s)
Restoring the past: The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Home Studio
Behind the Scenes: Hendrick de Keyser Association
Latin America Special – Focus on Mexico
De Stijl in Drachten
Preserving the Nancarrow House-Studio
Meet the Friends - Nanne de Ru
Latin America Special – Focus on Brazil
Jan de Jong’s House is Latest Hendrick de Keyser Acquisition
Stay in a Belgian Modernist Masterpiece
In Berlin’s Modernist Network
Rietveld-Schröder House Celebrates De Stijl Anniversary
Meet Our New Foundation Board Members
Virtual Tour of a Papaverhof Home in 3D
Getty Grant for Villa E-1027
Iconic Dacha
11 Le Corbusier Homes now on Unesco World Heritage List
At home with Le Corbusier
Wright Plus 2016 Walk
Speaking Volumes: Building the Iconic Houses Library
Follow us!
Documentary La Ricarda
Rent a house designed by Gerrit Rietveld
Barragán House on Screen
Gesamtkunstwerk – An Icon on the Move
Triennale der Moderne 27 September - 13 October 2013
Prestigious Art Nouveau mansions in Brussels open
September 14 + 15: Heritage Days in Paris
June's New Arrivals: Museum Apartments
Iconic Houses is now on Twitter and Facebook
Corbu’s Cabanon: Reconstruction and Lecture
Projekt Mies In Krefeld: Life-sized model of the Krefeld Clubhouse
New arrivals: Spain special
MAMO: Le Corbu’s ‘Park in the Sky’ open 12 June
Annual Wright Architectural Housewalk: 18 May
Frank Lloyd Wright Homes on Screen
Message from the Editor
Neutra’s House on Screen
Melnikov House on Screen
Iconic Houses in the media
Message from the Editor
Eileen Gray House on Screen
Copy Culture
At Home in the 20th Century
New 20th century Iconic Houses website launches
Meet the Friends – Elisabeth Tostrup
Elisabeth Tostrup is Emerita Professor of Architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Norway – and a Friend of Iconic Houses. A practising architect for many years, she is also an experienced researcher who received her doctorate in 1996 for the thesis Architecture and Rhetoric: Text and Design in Architectural Competitions, Oslo 1939 –1990. Her writings include the books Norwegian Wood: The Thoughtful Architecture of Wenche Selmer (2006), and Planetveien 12: The Korsmo House – A Scandinavian Icon (2014).
What’s your relationship with iconic houses?
Ever since I started my studies in architecture half a century ago, iconic houses have stuck in my memory – not only their image, but especially the in situ experience: their spatial quality, their dimensions, materials and structures, the light, the smells and even the temperatures. These real experiences are often stunningly intense compared with the idea you have formed in your mind based on presentations in books and journals. Quite often the dimensions are smaller, strikingly physical, and very human.
Do you have a favourite house?
I have to say the Korsmo house in Oslo, which was the subject of my last book. The Norwegian architect and CIAM member Arne Korsmo designed the house for himself and his wife, the renowned enamel artist Grete Prytz Korsmo (later Kittelsen), between 1952 and 1955. The house is fascinating because, on the one hand, it displays an apparently simple modular construction in plain materials, owing to the strict regulations of the post-war reconstruction period, while on the other hand it has a rich and unique spatial atmosphere thanks to the use of inventive furnishings, colours, and various translucent and transparent materials.
What kind of house do you live in, and what appeals to you most about your home?
I live in two places. The flat where I spend most of the year is in a six-storey house from 1936, quite centrally located in Oslo. It’s a quality functionalist building. I did some refurbishing in the late 1980s, and plan to do some renovations again. The location is excellent: I can walk to the city centre, theatres and concerts. I can also take the tram to the hills where we go skiing, or cycle ten minutes to my rowing club on the Oslo fjord. My summerhouse on the south coast of Norway, a small wooden construction built in 2010, offers more direct contact with nature, with the sea and sky.
What role would you like Iconic Houses to play?
I hope it will continue to vitalise the worldwide network of iconic houses. We have so much to learn from each other, not least how best to present these treasures to students and to the public in general. Iconic houses are important in architectural education and in our understanding of architecture. Perhaps the residential nature of these houses makes it easier for us to identify with them, and thus gain a deeper knowledge of architectural qualities.
Which 21st-century Norwegian house should become an Iconic House, and why?
House Bøe/Møller, built between 2011 and 2014 by the architect Knut Hjeltnes near Oslo, is rather introverted due to the site, which offers no view. Instead, the attention is directed towards the six small atriums (some covered), a beautiful pine tree and an 8-m-deep stretch of maple and birch. Once inside the house, the spatial sequences offer beautiful views, with an amazing light that enters from different directions, including the skylights. The orchestration of materials and the craftsmanship are outstanding.
What are you working on now?
I am working on an article for the 14th Docomomo International conference in Lisbon in September 2016. It deals with the adaptive re-use of the Korsmo house in Oslo. Protected by law, the 1950s house needed repairs and some adaptations to make it suitable for the family life of a new owner with children.
Korsmo House, seen from the garden, 1955, Oslo Norway. Photo: Finn Arne Johannessen
Korsmo House living room, 1955, Oslo Norway. Photo: Ane Hjort Guttu
The Bøe/Møller House, Knut Hjeltnes 2011-’14, Bærum, Norway. Photo: Knut Hjeltnes
The living room of the Bøe/Møller House, Knut Hjeltnes 2011-’14, Bærum, Norway. Photo: Annette Andersen
Publication date 11 February 2016