Anyone who has a tendency to waste time daydreaming should steer well clear of the website The Modern House: the forward-looking estate agency masterminded by Messrs Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill, alumni of The World of Interiors and Wallpaper* respectively. Featuring a range of spectacular modernist and exceptionally designed contemporary homes, variously available to buy or rent (both on a long-term basis and for holidays), it’s the kind of site you can spend fruitless hours wistfully gawping at. (Unless, of course, you’re buying – in which case, lucky you.) Messrs Gibberd and Hill launched The Modern House in 2005, sensing “a gap in the market for an estate agency with a real understanding of good design.” Back then, things were a little different. “Modern design, in terms of the property market, was generally treated with uncertainty and a level of suspicion,” says Mr Hill. “We wanted to change the way people approached it.”

It has to be said that they have accomplished this mission masterfully, unearthing a range of hidden architectural gems around the UK and Europe and commissioning extensive (and well-shot) photographs of each. “We’ve seen and sold some amazing places,” says Mr Hill, though he admits that in the course of the past 10 years they’ve had to expand their definition of what a “modern house” really is. “Modernism for us has an increasingly broad meaning – it covers good design in all its variants,” he says. However, according to Mr Gibberd, there are some common threads that run through all the best homes. “The central themes of modernism are at the heart of all of the properties we sell: flowing space, natural light, truth to materials, and the relationship between architecture and its environment,” he says. “In many ways we treat our website like a magazine, and we are editing all the time.” Naturally, such activities have granted the duo a rather enviable perspective on modern home design. Given this, we asked them to select five of their favourite ever modernist properties, for your browsing pleasure. Dream on, below.

“This is a beautifully preserved Scandinavian-style house set in very English countryside, by the architects who were also responsible for the Sydney Opera House.”

“Built in 1929, High & Over is widely recognised at the first modern house in the UK. Commissioned by Mr Bernard Ashmole, who later became the director of The British School at Rome, as well as Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, the building was an avant-garde shock that symbolised the start of a new architectural order in Britain.”

“Completed in 2009, this property isn’t academically modernist. But, converted from a 1930s reservoir for the artist Mr Dinos Chapman and knitwear designer Ms Tiphaine de Lussy, it’s a Modern House in every sense. The property preserves the tough, concrete aesthetic of the original structure, with additional elements glazed and clad in wood to form a richly austere composition in the landscape.”

“We’ve sold hundreds of flats across London, but those in the Barbican Estate really are the ultimate. It’s unrivalled for the completeness of the design integrity and its holistic architectural approach. Every detail is considered and refined.”

“This single-storey house in Wimbledon was an important, experimental landmark in post-war British architecture. Built in the late 1960s, it spliced the aesthetic of Californian modernism with the flexibility created by the use of high-tech industrial materials, all filtered through a bold pop sensibility.”

“Again breaking with the purist definition of the movement, this house embodies the modernist ideals … but is a contemporary build completed in 2010. It’s the modesty and refinement of this property that sets it apart.”