The perfect house

Tyler Brûlé, editor-in-chief of Wallpaper
My perfect house would be in Switzerland, not far from Zürich, because I need to be close to an airport. I have strong ideas about what I want; a timber, glass and steel construction, reasonably low slung yet over two stories, would be perfect.

Entertaining space is important. My dining space in London is great for sitting and lounging around before dinner, and then sliding over to the table, but it's cut off from the kitchen. I'm trying to come up with a flexible system that allows you to ignore the kitchen if you have someone in cooking for you, but lets you mingle with guests if you're cooking. In the living entertaining space, something with different levels would be interesting in terms of scale of the space, and would also allow you to make an entrance.

Light is incredibly important. One always wants a sense of optimism, and it puts a spring in your step if the sun's pouring into the house. I'm not huge on window treatments, so I would rather have a system of shutters. The Swiss are brilliant at awnings and sliding screens.

The bedroom should be clean and uncluttered. I would commission one-off pieces of furniture, but I would also look at the markets in Paris and Copenhagen, the auctions in Stockholm and go on a big buying spree of classic pieces mixed in with modern or bespoke.

Apart from this, the important thing is for a house to be enduring. We're so obsessed with reinvention, and retailers treat the home like fashion. There's something new to buy every four weeks and that's not what the house is about. I like the notion of constancy.

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