Welcome to our weekly property digest, where we bring together the best homes for rent and sale across the world. This week we have a modernist special, with a salmon-pink Palm Springs home and ground-breaking Arizonan solar house among our picks.
Minimalist hideaway in Joshua Tree National Park, US
2 bedrooms; from $295 per night via Airbnb
Freshly renovated minimalist holiday home Villa Kuro was designed for slow living and can be found amid the cactus-dotted plains of California’s Joshua Tree National Park. Husband-and-wife team Elaine and Stanley Yang renovated the 1960s ranch following the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi, which celebrates imperfection. They have used muted neutral tones and natural materials for interiors. Take a look around the desert home.
Midcentury home in Connecticut, US
5 bedrooms; $625,000 via Higgins Private Brokerage/Christie’s International Real Estate
Frank Lloyd Wright’s colleague Allan J Gelbin designed this home in modernist playground Connecticut. The midcentury property needs a few updates but the best parts of its original design are intact, including the long living and dining room, which is framed by ribbon windows and heated by an open stone fireplace. Glass doors open onto a wraparound deck looking over the leafy 2.25-acre site. Get a closer look.
Albert Frey’s pink house in Palm Springs, US
3 bedrooms; $3m via TTK Represents
This pastel pink property in Palm Springs was designed by acclaimed local architects Albert Frey and Robson Chambers. Its salmon-coloured exterior pops against the bright blue skies of and San Jacinto Mountains that sit behind the modernist property. Its kitschy colour scheme switches tract inside the midcentury home, where rooms are drenched in retro shades of green and yellow. See more.
Ball-Paylore House in Arizona, US
2 bedrooms; from $250 per night via Airbnb
Pioneering Arizona ‘solar home’ Ball-Paylore House is a desert modernist landmark by architect Arthur T Brown. Phyllis Ball and Patricia Paylore commissioned the home in 1952, and from the front, it looks similar to other bungalows in the post-war Tuscon neighbourhood. At the rear, however, you see Brown’s ingenuity at work. The interior features a trapezoidal fireplace, which spreads heat on cold desert nights. Overhead, beams radiate this central point like sun rays, and built-in cabinetry and fixtures follow the contours of the rounded space. See more.
Architect’s modernist home in Eagle Rock, US
3 bedrooms; $7,000 per month via Ilana Gafni of Crosby Doe Associates
This post-and-beam dwelling was built in 1960 by architect Bruce Warren Norcross has his own home, and it’s completely original, down to the kitchen appliances. The authentic midcentury modern property is unaltered after six decades. A red brick exterior gives way to light interiors with clerestory and louvred windows, brick floors, bespoke walnut cabinetry and exposed beams. Get a closer look.
