Every house holds a story, but some homes are true theoretical manifestos in the history of architecture. There are residences designed to interpret a place, such as Vietti’s project in Costa Smeralda, balancing modern and vernacular elements, while others were conceived as tools of technical experimentation, like Paul Rudolph’s demountable masterpiece.

Today, many of these architectural gems are on the market, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder—or, hopefully, to someone who will preserve their artistic and cultural value.

From the Jones House by Frank Lloyd Wright—just one of many homes currently for sale designed by the master of Modernism—to the compositional solemnity of a villa by David Chipperfield on Lake Garda, these dwellings form an atlas of styles, languages, and experiments, bridging centuries and geographies. There are also unexpected jewels, such as an icon of the Space Age era, or a penthouse in Zaha Hadid’s latest skyscraper, along with an unusual “off-track” villa by Berry Dierks, the architect of the French Riviera.

Choosing to live in one of these creations does not simply mean purchasing real estate—it means stepping into an open narrative, made of cultural layers that continue to generate history.

In Santa Marinella, amidst organic forms and plastic volumes seemingly sculpted by the wind and sand, Villa La Califfarecall in everything the more famous and neighbouring Villa Saracena by the same Moretti (1957), of which the building now on the property market seems a lovely "little sister". Read more

If it were not known as one of the very rare examples of the Space Age era in New York City, one might safely assume that the "Bubble House," whose photos have been circulating so much on the web in recent days, was generated with artificial intelligence. Built in 1969 by architect Maurice Medcalfe, this completely out-of-context residence has become a New York icon. It is now for sale for more than $5 million. Read more

Luigi Vietti designed this building during the Sixties, an incredible moment for this part of Sardinia. Here, together with Busiri Vici, Couelle and Mossa he shaped the tradition of the place. Recently, the villa has been partly renovated by the Lesuisse studio and is now for sale for 10 million euros. Read more

In the 1930s, stage designer Alexandre Ferenczy and architect Hermann Henselmann – who would later gain fame for Berlin TV Tower and Karl-Marx-Allee – collaborated on a Bauhaus-style Villa Kenwin near Montreux, a manifesto home for three intellectuals, now back on the market. Read more

In Calcata, in the Lazio region, the villa designed by the internationally renowned architect are on sale by Christie's International Real Estate. Surrounded by a hectare of land with fruit trees, ornamental plants and a terrace overlooking the natural oasis of the Treja Park, the building is the result of the renovation of an ancient ruin that Portoghesi turned into his studio in 1998. Read more

Picasso was a guest at Dierks’s home, and Dierks designed Somerset Maugham’s house. In the first half of the 20th century, Dierks dedicated his life to designing villas on the French Riviera, helping to create its myth. Dierks is a relatively unknown figure, but his legacy is enormous. Read more

Paul Rudolph’s Walker Guest House was built in 1953 on the beaches of Sanibel, Florida. Modular and demountable, it has already traveled to California. This “house without a house” tells us a lot about brutalism and Paul Rudolph. Read more

Overlooking a private garden in the heart of Brianza, Villa Redaelli is a monumental residence designed by Mario Botta and currently on sale through Lionard for a price of over 3 million euros. Built between the late 1990s and early 2000s, it stands out as a powerful and distinctive architectural work, clearly bearing the mark of its designer. Read more

One Thousand Museum is one of the final projects designed by Zaha Hadid before her death, and now one of its most prestigious residences is on the market for $24 million. Read more

Designed in the early 1950s, the Van Sicklen House is one of those California works by the Austrian-American maestro where modernist lines meet natural materials like stone and wood. As the listings proclaim, this is a rare opportunity to purchase and restore one of the few Neutra works in the region. Read more

Monumental like a temple – or like the museums in Berlin – but bathed in sunlight like a Mediterranean “limonaia”, the villa designed on Lake Garda by the Pritzker Prize-winning designer and Domus guest editor 2020 translates the soul of the landscape into architecture. Read more

In the 1920s, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Georgia and Richard Lloyd Jones House (1929), for sale for $3.5 million, in which Wright abandoned the language of prairie houses in favor of greater spatial articulation in keeping with the hilly Oklahoma context. Read more