Welcome to the first edition of a new recurring series: Homes of the Month. Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of my favourite homes and buildings recently featured on Designed to Last.
The Beaton House
Living in Vancouver, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a plethora of incredible West Coast Modern homes. Most of which are located just across the bridge in the neighbouring West Vancouver. The Beaton House, designed by Canadian architect Arthur Mudry in 1965, is no exception.
Featuring an incredible Wright-esque floating staircase, Japanese inspired, details throughout, and luxurious high ceilings - this home is truly stunning.
Unfortunately, many West Coast Modern homes have been demolished in recent years, due to the skyrocketing land values and relatively relaxed preservation laws. The Beaton House did not survive this crisis, and was demolished in 2018.
Karl Lagerfeld’s Paris Atelier
Karl Lagerfeld was quite a controversial character. If I’m being honest, I knew almost nothing about his personal life until I read André Leon Talley’s memoir The Chiffon Trenches earlier this year. However, that’s not surprising since he was incredibly private and a well known recluse.
Karl was a veracious reader, and an obsessive book collector. According to Vogue, his collection totalled over 300,000 books. This is immediately apparent when looking at his Atelier in Paris, which was covered floor-to-ceiling in books.
When I shared these photos on Instagram a few weeks ago it started a heated debate in the comments about how most of the books were stacked horizontally - which looks good, but is less than ideal if you want to pull a book from the bottom. Personally I think if you own over 300,000 books, you should get a pass to sort them however you’d like.
Studio House Zumthor
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