Alain de Botton commissions cutting-edge holiday homes
10th May 2010
Author and philosopher Alain de Botton is lending his support to the modernist movement by commissioning a series of holiday homes designed by cutting-edge contemporary architects.
He claims that the move is part of a strategy to cure the British public's fear of such buildings.
The writer, whose work includes The Architecture of Happiness and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, has commissioned five buildings so far and hopes to rent them out to holidaymakers on a not-for-profit basis.
Leading architects from London, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland have submitted plans so far and the first of the new buildings will be available to rent from October 22nd.
'You are more than just sleeping there - you are looking around and learning about modern architecture,' de Botton told the Guardian.
'I want to help people get over the dichotomy that modernism equals awful and antiquated equals great. There is still, in many people's minds, a fear around the words "modern architecture",' he concluded.