Britain's coolest house?

Architect Patrick Gwynne's pioneering modernist home, The Homewood, at Esher, will open to the public for the first time on 26 March, less than a year after his death, aged 90.

The house and its contents, which the architect bequeathed to the National Trust, is one of just a handful of 20th century properties owned by the preservation charity.

Gwynne, who worked as a young man for Wells Coates, the modernist architect responsible for the Grade I Isokon flats in Lawn Road, Hampstead, designed The Homewood in 1937 for his parents when he was just 24.

Influenced by Corbusier's Villa Savoye in Paris and Mies van der Rohe's Tugendhat House in the Czech Republic, The Homewood is built on pillars with the living spaces contained on the first floor, from where visitors will be able to enjoy views over the 10-acre landscaped gardens through full-length walls of glass.

The house, often described as Gwynne's life's work, includes plenty of his trademark fitted furniture, which will be of great interest to students of interior design who wrestle with the problem of how a busy, acquisitive life can be reconciled with a sleek, ordered, minimalist interior.

The often dual-purpose furniture includes a desk that converts to a drawing table; a very Austin Powers dining table with a central recess containing up lights that can be controlled by a row of discreet knobs; and walls of cupboards in the bedrooms that conceal basins, mirrors, hanging space and even televisions.

The Homewood is open on Fridays only from 26 March (plus one Saturday a month), and will close again in October. Access is limited to pre-booked tickets, which can be bought from 1 March for £5 (£2.50 for children, £12.50 for family groups). Access to the house will be by minibus from the Claremont Landscape Gardens car park on the Portsmouth Road, which runs from the A3 to Esher. To book, call 01372 471144.