Issue 54 OUTSIDE
Grab a bag, pack your passport, camera, some sunglasses, swimming gear, and sturdy shoes, because in issue 54 of the modernist we are heading OUTSIDE.
Join us as we venture up mountains, bask on beaches, stroll in parks and gardens, as well as mooch on urban streets. On the way, we’ll take in cemeteries, art in supermarket car parks and encounter some unusual doors.
the modernist magazine is available on-line and at selected magazine shops.
the modernist issue 54 published in June 2025, features articles and photo essays by:
Paul Woodville who in ‘Fjords, Forests and Functionalism’ discusses the 1930s modernist, and sometimes hedonist, playground Ingierstrand Bad revealing the history and restoration of this key example of early modernist architecture in Norway.
Sarah Hardacre continues with the hedonistic theme in her writing about the ‘Naked City’ on France’s Cap d’Agde, the location of the world’s largest nudist village, a state sponsored resort designed and executed with ideologies of both naturism and modernism at heart.
Richard Brook invites us to go ‘Outward Bound’ at the Ffestiniog pumped storage power station system, a monumental infrastructure project that both shapes and is shaped by its sublime location in the Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.
Ben Tosland discusses the use of planforms by European architect’s working in locations such as the Middle East and West Africa as a modernist framework through which to distill inside and outside space.
Stuart Wilson who in ‘La Tipographica Vita’ presents bagni/lido signs as a unique and enchanting typographic exploration of beach clubs and holiday culture on the Italian Riviera of Versilia, northern Tuscany.
Mark Bessoudo draws on visual materials from the Sainsbury Archive to introduce us to ‘Public Art Outside the British Aisles’ and a period in the latter half of the twentieth century when the large supermarket chain actively commissioned art works for its stores, with astonishing results.
Roger Dean provides the most beguiling collection of door plates collected on trips to Brussels in ‘Unusual Doors.’
Stefi Orazi presents her ‘Peramubulations’ series of guides to modernist architecture, a project which started as a method to re-engage with the city on foot but evolved into an ongoing endeavour rooted in ‘encouraging exploration, curiosity and connection’ on public streets.
Lucy Marshall takes readers to 'A New Funerary Landscape’ in the form of early 20th century cemeteries which moved away from traditional ornate and formal settings and embraced a move towards wooded landscapes and an approach more tuned in with nature.
Lex Lamb provides us with an ‘Introduction to the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival’ in order to remind us of the outstanding success of the event which launched the careers of architects, horticulturalists and artists and in so doing helped reposition a post-industrial city firmly back on an international stage. 
Stephen Marland in his ‘Tale of Several Cities’ photographically shows us how traversing the city on foot, by bike, or via public transport encourages the appreciation of neighbourhoods and sites outside the mainstream modernist canon.
Eleanor Moselle takes us on a trip to the Dolomites in Italy and ‘ENI village’ – a modernist holiday resort designed by Austrian-Italian architect Edoardo Gellner. The village, an impressive example of attitudes towards employee welfare, was designed for employees and their families to have holidays funded by Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (a multinational energy company).
Joe Austin provides a peak behind the curtains into the beautiful gardens of Sir Frederick Gibberd, an influential, though often overlooked 20th century architect.
the modernist magazine is available on-line and at selected magazine shops.
Image Credits
A busy summer day at Ingierstrand Bad in the early 1930s, with the characteristic diving board stretching out into the fjord, Anders Beer Wilse, National Library of Norway
Stwlan Dam set in its landscape, Richard Brook
Geometric brickwork at the Sainsbury’s branch in Colchester, Essex, 1969, © The Sainsbury Archive, Museum of London Docklands (2025)
Highgate North Perambulation Guide, Stefi Orazi
Aerial view of the western part of the Garden Festival site, David and Ann Lever archive
The ENI village hotel with Mount Antelao behind it, © Fabio Gubellini
Frederick Gibberd, Joe Austin