A film about what happens when the architect's purist vision meets reality in the form of bureaucracy, cost, and the client's demands. Watched it inflight, but much better on the big screen, I think.

We have lots of great talks coming up this season at the Isokon. Topics include: Edith Tudor-Hart, the restoration of Space House, Egon Riss, and Seaside Architecture between the Wars. Follow us on Eventbrite www.eventbrite.com/o/10598755560 so you don’t miss out.

You can see an Isokon Minimum Flat tomorrow, Sunday 8 March, from 11 am to 1 pm. First come, first served; we ask for a £10 donation per visitor.

More reflections by Katja Hojer, here on the Berlin Olympic Stadium: "To tear it down and rebuild something new, would have erased a physical reminder of how architecture can serve tyranny. On the other hand, preserving it without commentary or alteration would risk aestheticising that tyranny."

‘The question we should ask isn’t “erase or preserve?” but “how do we handle traces of dictatorships responsibly?”’ … ‘Conservation and reinterpretation can allow former sites of power to become spaces of reflection. History, however painful, deserves its place in the present’

This sounds great! Definitely one for fans of #ArtDeco Kathryn will also be giving a talk at the Isokon Gallery on 30 April. Follow us on www.eventbrite.com/o/10598755560 for alerts when tickets go on sale.

We’re opening for the new season this Saturday, and on Sunday 1 March, you have the opportunity to visit an Isokon minimum flat from 11 am to 1 pm. First come, first served; we ask for a donation of £10 per visitor.

Coming up next, our first event for this year. Daria Santini discusses her new book about Edith Tudor-Hart, photographer and Soviet agent, with Stuart Purvis on 25 March at the Isokon Gallery. Tickets via Eventbrite👇

Around the time the Isokon flats were being designed, László Hudec was bringing modernism to Shanghai (after escaping from a Siberian prison camp).

Bad Bunny, in a building designed by a former Isokon Flats resident Marcel Breuer: Meister Hall, designed in the late 1960s as an extension to the Bronx Community College campus, with its rugged concrete surfaces, angular geometries, and stripped-back material palette.

Arne Jacobsen, designer of furniture, buildings, cutlery, and more, was born on this day, 11 February, in 1902.

Unexpected modernist influence at the Wessex Estate, Singapore. Former British military quarters built in the 1930s-40s. One of the blocks (“Blenheim”) currently housing exhibits from the Singapore Biennale.

The first episode of the Bauhaus podcast for this year features the photographer Florence Henri. “What began as an experiment became a radical reinvention: mirrors, props, fractured spaces — images that redefined modern photography.” www.bauhausfaces.com/start/episod...

A fascinating talk at the MillerKnoll showroom in Clerkenwell by Magnus Englund and Leyla Daybelge on Marcel Breuer. A big thank you to MillerKnoll for hosting us. The talk was for Isokon volunteers (one of the perks of being part of our team).

Isokon supporter and penthouse resident Tom Broughton on his seaside retreat at St Leonard’s on Sea, with its Isokon-influenced interior: ‘I steal my ideas — and my homes — from 1930s modernism’

Great evening celebrating Marcel Breuer with the Isokrew @isokongallery.bsky.social - among other treats, an original 1953 publication on his UNESCO building in Paris:

You might have seen an excerpt of this 1969 film on social media recently with the interior of a Barbican flat. Here’s the full video. Enjoy!

Hill House (Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Mackintosh) being restored under cover as it dries out following years of water ingress. From a fascinating visit with iconichouses.org and @n-t-s.bsky.social

NEWS: C20 is delighted that Norwich Sports Village, the only concrete shell structures in the UK designed by pioneering Swiss engineer Heinz Isler, has been Grade II listed. The graceful, tent-like canopies are only 10mm thick and a masterpiece of engineering. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/heinz-i...

Just look at these Italian modernist churches! From Marta Minuzzo’s photographic series “Templi Moderni. Costruire il sacro in tempi distratti” (Modern Temples: Building the Sacred in Distracted Times). www.domusweb.it/en/architect...

A look inside the Hopkins House, quite close to the Isokon Gallery, with some lovely pictures: www.worldofinteriors.com/story/hopkin...

A visit with a group from www.iconichouses.org to High Sunderland, the former home of Bernat Klein, and his former studio, the latter now awaiting restoration. Both designed by Peter Womersley (1/2)

We’re on a visit to Glasgow. There’s a fantastic display about the Railplane at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. High tech transportation in 1930, just a few years before the Isokon flats were built! youtu.be/vvSmwMqtylA?...

Renovation of Africa Hall, Addis Ababa, awarded the 2026 WMF/Knoll Modernism Prize, the first building in Africa to have won the award. Want to know more about African modernism? Check out this book, available online and at the Isokon Gallery when we we open on 28 Feb. bit.ly/4pUIagY

The Isokon Gallery will open on Saturday 28 February 2026 until the end of November, every Saturday and Sunday (11 am - 4 pm). ALSO, new for this year, on the last Friday of each month (11 am -4 pm, plus 6 -9 pm)!

If you watched the movie "The Kitchen", set in a future dystopian London www.netflix.com/gb/title/815... and were wondering about the buildings, here they are in real life, in the Parisian suburb of Courbevoie: lookatthisbuilding.wordpress.com/2020/11/22/l... . (1/2)

A 1955 interview with Agatha Christie, who lived in the Isokon building between 1941 and 1947, and was the subject of our 2021-22 exhibition (of which more details can be found here) isokongallery.org/blogs/exhibi... www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF8X...

Housing projects in Ivry-sur-Seine and the Paris suburbs, the work of Renée Gailhoustet, are the subject of a new exhibition at the Architectural Association (16 Jan - 21 March 2026), reviewed here: www.worldofinteriors.com/story/renee-...

The Isokon flats were home to several Soviet spies. This is the sort of camera that would have been used for espionage in those days. You can still buy the cameras second hand. casualphotophile.com/2018/10/03/m... #minox #espionage 1/2

The Wolverhampton School of Art (Diamond Redfern and Partners, 1966-70). In February 2025, the University had said it was planning to relocate the School and demolish the building, prompting a large scale protest. It's now been Listed Grade II, and saved. c20society.org.uk/news/listing...

Yesterday, 12 January, was the 50th anniversary of Agatha Christie's death. She lived at the Isokon from 1941 - 1947, and was given permission to knock two flats together. We had an Agatha Christie exhibition in 2021/22, with an excellent accompanying short film: isokongallery.org/blogs/exhibi...

A tiny selection from the Nigerian Modernism show @tatemodern.bsky.social On until 10 May.

Hope everyone is ok in the cold snap 🥶. Photo by former Isokon resident László Moholy-Nagy after he left London and moved to the USA

The last building designed by the late Balakrishna Doshi, and the only one built outside India. Recently completed at the Vitra campus. www.dezeen.com/2025/10/24/b...

Looking back on 2025, from our friends in Manchester.

Some videos to keep you entertained, inspired and informed, courtesy of @dezeen.com www.dezeen.com/2025/12/31/t...

Happy New Year everyone!

Something to look forward to in the coming year: Allesandro Mendini at the Estorick www.estorickcollection.com/exhibitions/...

A charming gingerbread Barbican 😊. One of many creations at www.thegingerbreadcity.com/london.html . Until 4 January 2026, at Coal Drops Yard, London N1C 4DQ.

Yerevan looks interesting. There will be direct flights there from London for the first time from June 2026 (Wizz Air, from Luton).

Happy Christmas! With a plywood robin, in honour of Jack “Plywood” Pritchard and Marcel Breuer’s Isokon Long Chair

Shops, and a cocktail bar, by the proto-modern architect Adolf Loos, that you can visit in Vienna. The cocktail bar is tiny and can get crowded, though.

The Isokon flats were built in 1934 in response to the question 'How do we want to live now? In the 1980s, ten houses were built in Almere in the Netherlands, in an area called De Fantasie (The Fantasy) which also seem to address that question. www.worldofinteriors.com/story/de-fan...

In which Diébédo Francis Kéré, talks about his life, how he became an architect, and his experiences.

Last day to shop for Christmas at the Isokon online store. Get your order in today! isokongallery.org/collections/

A new episode in Anja Guttenberger's Bauhaus Faces Podcast about about Ludwig Hilberseimer, who designed a Highrise City in 1924. www.bauhausfaces.com/start/episod... Anja will be giving a talk at the Isokon Gallery on 1 October 2026; keep an eye out for it on our website and on Eventbrite.

African modernism is having a moment, with an exhibition at Tate Modern. Explore another aspect, architectural modernism, in this recent book, available online from the Isokon Gallery shop tinyurl.com/53ykw55w

We've had a wonderful 2025 season at the Isokon Gallery, with record numbers of visitors. Although the Gallery is now closed, our online shop remains open isokongallery.org/collections/ The Isokon Gallery will reopen next year on Saturday 28 February. See you there in 2026!

A new book about the art of the 1930’s, when the Isokon flats were being built, a period which is often compared to our current one.

Christmas Isokon Shop today! Here’s a selection of some of our new stock: