Homing In Matt Gibberd and The Modern House

A while back, Tim came to London to perform at the Isokon building in Belsize Park, and I managed to catch up with him to record this podcast.  
As a small boy in the Seventies, Tim quietly absorbed the lessons of modernist architecture. He remembers accompanying his parents to a dinner party at a modern house, where the sound of laughter reverberated around the circular lounge; his career seems to have been about trying to recapture that heady moment. 
In 2003, he bought his own modernist house in Sydney, a move which, he says, ‘changed my life for the better’. His fascination with architecture and design had previously been a solitary pursuit, but the house provided a way to meet like-minded people and a launchpad for his TV career. 
Tim is really great company, and we talk about all sorts of things. He explains how he’s an outlier in his family, and what it felt like to perform on stage for the first time.  
He tells me about the day the Beastie Boys came to visit and wouldn’t leave, why he’d rather learn to be a builder than go through the stress of another renovation project, and why he swears by the uplifting effects of tinted moisturiser.
This episode was recorded in person in Brick Lane, London.
For more: 
Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode
Discover more about Tim Ross and his live shows
See more of his Sydney home
Producer: Hannah Phillips
Editing: Oscar Crawford
Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker
Music: Father


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Luke has kindly invited us to his house in the Cotswolds, which he shares with his husband, Duncan Campbell, and a pair of enthusiastic whippets.  
I was intrigued to learn that this modern-day dandy comes from a bog-standard commuter town, and like many of the people I talk to on this podcast, his creative impulses offered a route out of mediocrity. 
He tells me his very personal backstory of being estranged from his father at a young age, and what it was like to come out as gay to his family. 
We talk about his witty, whimsical interpretation of the English Country House Style, why he believes you should invest yourself financially and emotionally in a rental, and why he chose to paint his London flat in ‘Pepto-Bismol pink’ before getting rid of it a few days later.
This episode was recorded in person at Luke’s cottage in the Cotswolds.
For more: 
Check out the work of Luke Edward Hall
See images of the home he shares with Duncan Campbell over on our sister website, Inigo
Visit The Modern House website
Producer: Hannah Phillips
Editing: Oscar Crawford
Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker 
Music: Father 

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This is the first time we’ve recorded an episode in a hotel suite, and that’s because today’s guest knows more about opening doors to glamorous guesthouses than anyone else. 
James Lohan co-founded the travel company Mr & Mrs Smith with his wife Tamara back in 2003, and since then he’s visited nearly 4,000 hotels in the name of research. 
James is a gregarious character with some brilliant tales to tell.We discuss his earliest experiences as an entrepreneur, from selling cheese toasties at school, to setting up a mobile disco called Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It. 
He tells me about his refurbishment of a Dutch barge on the Thames – complete with flock wallpaper and a freestanding bath – and what he’s learned from hotels that we might apply to our homes.
This episode was recorded in person at The Nomad Hotel, London.
For more:
Check out Mr & Mrs Smith
Visit The Modern House website
Producer: Hannah Phillips
Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford
Music: Father
Graphic Design: Tom Young and Ben Tucker
This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.

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During her tenure at Nowness, Claudia commissioned the well-known ‘In Residence’ series, which took us inside the homes of the biggest names in design and architecture. Today, I’m meeting Claudia in her beautiful London home to give her a taste of her own journalistic medicine …
She tells me about what it was like to grow up in an English prototype of the American dream, and talks fondly about her ‘impossibly glamorous’ grandparents’ house, which had shagpile carpet, pink loo roll and a telephone next to the sunken bath.
We discuss why she prefers to define space with furniture rather than architecture, what happened when she broke her hip and couldn’t get down the stairs, why a home is never truly finished, and the power of procrastination.
This episode was recorded at Claudia's home in north west London.
For more:
Visit The Modern House website for images of some the spaces discussed in this episode
Check out Cloakroom
Production: Hannah Phillips
Editing and mixing: Oscar Crawford
Graphic Design: Tom Young
Music: Father
This episode was sponsored by Vitsoe.


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Philippe designs everything from furniture to lighting, combining modern geometry with a sense of humour and materials that are built to last. I first met him many years ago, when he was doing some work with my wife, Faye Toogood. We’d turned our bedroom into a makeshift design studio, and Philippe and a few others would come round to make maquettes and geek out about ergonomics. 
Nowadays, he’s a burly, bearded bear of a man with an extra 20kg of muscle, but his wit and warmth are the same as I remember. He tells me about what it was like to grow up beside a lake in Canada. From the age of seven, he would take himself off in his boat for the whole day, catching fish and swimming off the islands. 
This independent, practical spirit has continued into adult life. He largely works on his own, because that’s how he likes it. His studio in Hackney, where we met to record this conversation, is the epicentre of his creative output – a place where he can build something, obsess over which type of screw he’s going to use, or just sit and daydream.
He tells me what it’s like to create a home from stuff that others have thrown away, how he saved up to buy his favourite sofa and kept it wrapped in plastic for two years, and why space is the ultimate luxury.
This episode was recorded in person, at Philippe Malouin’s studio in East London.
For more: 
Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode
Check out Philippe Malouin’s latest work
Production: Hannah Phillips
Editing: Oscar Crawford
Graphic Design: Tom Young
Music: Father

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Today I’m talking to the wonderful Sumayya Vally, founder of the architecture and research practice Counterspace. When in 2020 Sumayya designed the Serpentine pavilion, she joined the ranks of luminaries including Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor and Frank Gehry. In 2021, Time Magazine named her one of the ‘100 Leaders of the Future’ and, more recently, she was artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Saudi Arabia.
What really shines through in this conversation is Sumayya’s interest in the notion of home as it relates to place. She was born in an Indian township in Pretoria, just after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and she cites the city of Johannesburg as her biggest inspiration. When she arrived in London, she became interested in the gathering spaces where settlers from other countries and communities have established themselves: churches, synagogues, marketplaces, female community centres, black-music venues and so on. ‘Home is not a physical place,’ she says. ‘It’s a sensibility and a feeling.’
The name ‘Sumayya’ means ‘to rise to the occasion’, and she tells me how she’s an outlier in her family and how her parents made sacrifices to provide her with an education. Very occasionally in life, you meet someone who has an inner light that seems to shine more brightly than other people’s. For me, Sumayya has that. She’s incredibly composed, articulate and wise beyond her years and I’m full of admiration for the work she’s doing to bring disparate cultures together.
This episode was recorded in person in London.
For more:
Visit The Modern House website to see images of the spaces discussed in this episode.
Check out Counterspace.
Production: Hannah Phillips
Editing: Oscar Crawford
Graphic Design: Tom Young
Music: Father


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.