The World’s Most Visionary Homes, from Rio to the Riviera 

Suspended above a rocky terrace in Rio de Janeiro, the tropical-inspired Canoas House by Oscar Niemeyer seems to levitate on glass walls, a vast boulder thrusting through its living room as if Mother Nature herself dictated the plan. Half a world away, outside Cannes, Antti Lovag’s otherworldly Palais Bulles unfurls as a surreal cluster of bubbles, its circular windows framing the Mediterranean like cinematic portholes. These singular visions of domestic life, along with more than 100 others by the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Tadao Ando, and Rem Koolhaas, animate Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900 (Thames & Hudson), a new compendium by writer Dominic Bradbury and photographer Richard Powers. 

The informative tome traces the evolution of residential architecture over the past century through masterpieces whose design ambitions, material experimentation, or sensitivity to clients’ needs made them groundbreaking at the time. Take Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, a quintessential example of Palm Springs modernism that anchors the desert with planes of glass, stone, and steel, dissolving boundaries between indoors and out and backdropping era-defining photographs by Slim Aarons and Julius Shulman. Harry Seidler’s rectilinear Rose Seidler House near Sydney, perched on pilotis with an access ramp and integrated roof terrace, channels Corbusian ideals into a radical suburban experiment that remains one of Australia’s purest examples of midcentury architecture.  

Across more than 600 illustrations spanning floor plans and archival drawings, Bradbury and Powers celebrate both canonical milestones and lesser-known gems, from Berthold Lubetkin’s floating Bungalow A in Bedfordshire to the geometric retreat that architect Charles Gwathmey fashioned for his parents on an expansive lawn in Amagansett. Each house, whether embracing vernacular traditions or technological derring-do, reflects its architect’s willingness, as Bradbury notes, “to carry intense emotional and intellectual power. It requires a sense of daring, even bravery, with all the risks attendant in such a project.”  

Scroll below to see more images from the book.