Created from an initial design by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon – who never visited the site – in collaboration with his client, the civil engineer Povl Ahm, this is a very Scandinavian house set in very English countryside.

Utzon and Ahm, a former chairman of Ove Arup, worked together on the Sydney Opera House, the hugely complex project that made, undid and ultimately cemented Utzon’s reputation. The Hertfordshire house was far more straightforward, a long, low pavilion of yellow London brick combined with bold structural precast longitudinal beams that project beyond the lines of the windows.

Photography: Tim Crocker

Our new ‘From the Archive’ series takes excerpts and images from ‘The Modern House’ by Jonathan Bell, Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill – a publication written and produced to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Produced in 2015, this book offers our own distinctive snapshot of what it means to live in a modern way in Britain.