Luis Fernández-Galiano   The houses of the masters are at once self-portrait and experiment. From the several residences and offices of Frank Lloyd Wright to the mythical, essential cabanon of Le Corbusier, the gods of the 20th-century have taken a human dimension in the hou

Rudolf Michael Schindler   United States   Rudolf M. Schindler designed and built his own house in the period between September1921 and June 1922. It was his first project as an independent architect, after leaving Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio on account of disagreements sparked by poor work c

Konstantin Melnikov   Russia   In November 1929, when Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov and his family moved from a communal flat to the experimental house he had designed and built on a small street named Krivoarbatsky, little did he know that, removing 1949 and 1950, he would spen

Richard Neutra   United States   Richard Neutra built a house and studio for himself in Los Angeles in 1932. He was only 41 then. Born in Vienna, in 1923 he migrated to the United States, settling first in Chicago. In February 1925, encouraged by their friend the Viennese architect

Erik Gunnar Asplund   Sweden   Gunnar Asplund built his summer residence on the banks of the archipelago of Stockholm in 1937. He was 52 and at the prime of his career, having completed the Gotheburg City Hall and gained the recognition of his colleagues in the profession. He had

Ralph Erskine   Sweden   Between the winter of 1941 and the summer of 1942, Ralph Erskine built a small wooden cabin to use as a permanent residence and professional studio. Born in England in 1914, the architect was the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister. His education

Alvar Aalto   Finland   Alvar Aalto built the summer house of Muuratsalo after a long bout of depression that began in 1949 with the death of his first wife, Aino Marsio-Aalto. In 1952, while building the Town Hall of Säynätsalo, he met Elsa Mäkiniemi, a young assistant in

Jean Prouvé   France   Only close to the end of his life did Jean Prouvé live continuously in the summer house that he built for his family in the outskirts of Nancy. Even during construction, he spent all week in Paris, where he was working for the firm Aluminium Français

Alison & Peter Smithson   United Kingdom   In 1961, the British architects Alison and Peter Smithson started building their summer house in Wiltshire County. It was the materialization of a series of proposals developed in the period between 1953 and 1959, among them the Burrows Lea Farm proj

Eladio Dieste   Uruguay   Between 1967 and 1968, the Uruguayan architect Eladio Dieste built a house for his large family (the couple and eleven children) in the Punta Gorda quarter of Montevideo, just a few meters from the Río de la Plata. He lived there until his death in 2

Ramón Vázquez Molezún   Spain   Ramón Vázquez Molezún was forty-five years old when he drew up the project for his summer refuge in Bueu, where he would spend long periods resting with his family. Born in La Coruña in 1922, he graduated from university in 1948 and furthered his tra