The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture

Yale University Press, 2025 | Purchase

Most houses are the product of multiple layers of norms and expectations built up over time, whether methods, materials and technologies, or social, cultural, economic and political pressures. Yet, at various moments houses have been built that break with the past and do something different – houses that stand outside of these expectations and instead are conceived to embody whole new theories or agendas. We call these ‘manifesto houses’.

For the first time, this compelling thread in the history of architecture is surveyed by Owen Hopkins. He brings together a collection of twenty-one such manifesto houses, exploring the visions for architecture conjured by Andrea Palladio, Eileen Gray, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harry Seidler, Lina Bo Bardi, Anupama Kundoo and Sou Fujimoto, among others. The Manifesto House: Buildings that Changed the Future of Architecture looks in detail at the ideas and ambitions embodied in each house, the contexts that shaped them and their subsequent impact and influence on the future of architecture.

Press and reviews

‘[Hopkins] has written a radical book, an authoritative reflection on the private house as catalyst for progress and a meditation on the future of architecture. … He may have written the first revolutionary coffee-table book – an explosive manifesto in disguise.’ – Helen Barrett, Financial Times

‘To understand buildings, it can be useful to understand the thought processes behind them. In “The Manifesto House,” the writer and curator Owen Hopkins is eager to get into the minds of architects whose residential buildings, in the words of his subtitle, “changed the future of architecture.”’ – Benjamin Riley, Wall Street Journal

‘Manifesto houses … embody new theories, utilise innovative techniques and materials, and represent self-contained visions for how we could live. In his handsome, illustrated survey, Hopkins presents 21 houses that have shifted the nature of what architecture can be.’ – Michael Prodger, New Statesman

‘Owen Hopkins has an important sub­ject’ – Stephen Bayley, The Spectator

‘The future is indeed unclear and, in the midst of a climate and social emergency … the author dares to throw a provoking thought to keep us thinking beyond the pages of the book – architecture needs to look beyond our existing forms of practice to survive.’ – Bruno Bernardo, Building Design

‘Bringing the Manifesto argument up to date, Owen Hopkins chooses a number of non-Western examples that add much to the book’s value, as they diverge from the standard narrative of Modernist technique of aesthetic “progress”’ – Alan Powers, Country Life

[A] compelling thread in the history of architecture.’ – Architecture

‘The Manifesto House is a testament to how architects spark revolutionary ideas, and are redefining the parameters of what we can build.’ – Fruzsina Vida, Aesthetica