"A fresh look at 16 significant modernist homes
in New Canaan, Connecticut."
— Architectural Digest

"Get ready to fall madly in love with the architectural gems
featured in Midcentury Houses Today. "
— Elle Decor

Published by The Monacelli Press, with an Introduction by John Morris Dixon, Midcentury Houses Today presents the unparalleled concentration of residential modernism in New Canaan, Connecticut, a site of fervent experimentation by some of the leading lights of the movement in the United States.

This is where, in the 1940s and 1950s, Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Eliot Noyes, Edward Durrell Stone, and others promoted their core principles: simplicity, openness, and sensitivity to site and nature. There, they built houses that established architectural modernism as the ideal of domesticity in the twentieth century. 

Architects Jeffrey Matz and Cristina A. Ross, photographer Michael Biondo, and graphic designer Lorenzo Ottaviani present American modernism as an evolving legacy that adapts to contemporary life.

Selecting a representative group of sixteen houses, they present each one in great detail: from the clean, minimalist look of the initial construction, to subsequent additions by some of the most significant architects of our time, and concluding with the way in which the house is lived in today.

Voices of the architects and builders, original owners and current occupants combine to describe how the modernist residence is more than just a philosophy of design and construction, but also a philosophy of living. 

The sixteen houses selected and featured in the book are:

Breuer House 2 / Marcel Breuer

Noyes House 2 / Eliot Noyes

Wiley House / Philip Johnson 

Irwin House / Victor Christ-Janer

Ball House / Philip Johnson 

Brown House / Eliot Noyes 

Boissonnas House / Philip Johnson

Mills House 2 / Willis Mills 

Villa Ponte / John Johansen 

Celanese House / Edward Durell Stone

Irwin Pool House (now Gores Pavilion) / Landis Gores 

Tatum House / Hugh Smallen 

Birkenstock House / Victor Christ-Janer 

Becker House / Hugh Smallen 

Goldberg House / Alan Goldberg 

Chivvis House / Eliot Noyes

MODERNS ON MODERN IS A COLLABORATIVE FOUNDED BY PHOTOGRAPHER MICHAEL BIONDO, ARCHITECTS JEFFREY MATZ AND CRISTINA A. ROSS, AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR LORENZO OTTAVIANI.

THE GROUP IS UNITED BY A COMMON INTEREST IN MIDCENTURY ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN AND IS COMMITTED TO THE VISION THAT MODERN ARCHITECTURE IS NOT STATIC BUT IT SEEKS TO REINVENT ITSELF AS IT ADAPTS TO NEW WAYS OF LIFE.

MIDCENTURY HOUSES TODAY REPRESENTS THE FIRST OUTPUT OF THEIR ACTIVITIES.

website graphic design by Lorenzo Ottaviani