Alain de Botton commissions holiday homes to promote modernist architecture

From The Guardian:

"The philosopher Alain de Botton is to venture into holiday lettings in an attempt to cure the British public of what he believes is a widely held fear of modernist architecture.

The author of books including the Consolations of Philosophy and The Architecture of Happiness, has commissioned five houses by some of Europe's leading modern architects, which he plans to rent out on a not-for-profit basis. He said his purpose was 'to help people get over the dichotomy that modernism equals awful and antiquated equals great'."

Good fucking luck. Whatever one thinks of modernist architecture, one must applaud the gumption. Botton is an even more interesting thinker than I thought.