A Modern Way to Live: 5 Design Principles from the Modern House

by Matt Gibberd

Brought to you by Penguin.

Find happiness at home with five guiding principles from cultural phenomenon The Modern House.

In 2005, childhood friends Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill set out to convince people of the power of good design and its ability to influence our well-being. They founded The Modern House - in equal parts an estate agency, a publisher and a lifestyle brand - and went on to inspire a generation to live more thoughtfully and beautifully at home.

As The Modern House grew, Matt and Albert came to realise that the most successful homes they encountered - from cleverly conceived studio flats to listed architectural masterpieces - had been designed with attention to the same timeless Space, Light, Materials, Nature and Decoration.

In this book, Matt tells the stories of these remarkable living spaces and their equally remarkable owners, and demonstrates how the five principles can be applied to your own space in ways both large and small.

Revolutionary in its simplicity, and full of elegance, humour and joy , this book will inspire you to find happiness in the place you call home.

Genres: Architecture, Design, Interior Design

Audible Audio

Published October 28, 2021

Reviews

[Frtaberna · Rating 4 out of 5]

You definitely learn a lot about designing and making choices for your home. I think in a nutshell the book is about imbuing taste with meaning and learn to see all aspects of a house as possible enhancers of well-being, of just enriching your life and those you share your home with. There is a lot of terminology that you learn along the way that I think becomes very useful everytime that one will improve their homes or choose to move into a new one and build from scratch.
The author, who has a very endearing writing style, separates it into different aspects: space, light, colour, decoration and nature. More generally, as I see it, he speaks of how to address these aspects to find a harmonic combination of beauty, functionality, meaning and character.

It is full of examples for all of his points, which really gives the reader a lot of culture on the subject. I would however have appreciated more pictures of these examples. It isn’t such a big deal because I just
looked them up online, and the book is already quite big to add even more pages. Still, it would have been nice to find some way to illustrate it better.
But most importantly it’s a book that helps you find your voice when it comes to choosing and arranging a space for living, it helps you understand why some things work and others don’t for specific spaces, and how to develop an eye for seeing what improvements you can make for these spaces to be closee
to what they are aiming to be.

[pperi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book and a pleasure to read. Nicely distills house design into five different categories and provides a wealth of examples and teachings to learn from.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A key point: interiors need to engage all the senses to be successful. Unfortunately with the rise of social media the emphasis is on the visual to the detriment of the other senses. The great thing about this book is it’s not all about pretty pictures, furniture placement etc. There are spaces that don’t photograph well but are magnificent in person and this book will make you realize why.

[Florian, Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year, we wanted to redecorate our study and bedroom and Matt Gibberd's book seemed like a good inspiration. I was expecting lots of images of beautifully staged rooms, but "A Modern Way to Live" is much more. Gibberd introduces five design principles for houses: space, light, material, nature and decoration and thus shows in an abstract way what makes a comforting house. The end result is not a beautfiful yet unpersonal homestory in an interior design magazine, but a real home. My favorite idea: A dining table where every guest can write a note to their hosts on the bottom of the tabletop.

[Anyatuzova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book is an aesthetic pleasure in itself - the language, the pictures, the very emotional way the author talks about the houses, bringing in so many personal memories and impressions. Meant for a common reader rather than a professional, it’s a book very easy to read but also very rich in inspiration. I enjoyed it a lot and feel happy to recommend.

[Søren Surlykke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very lovely, some great thoughts about interiors written in a passionate, expertly way. A downside is the lack of pictures of what is being referenced. I understand that it is difficult to source pictures for such a book, but it still impacts the experience.

[Anton Forte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever principles for design and decorating.