The Elrod House

John Lautner’s Elrod House is a modernist gem located in the desert of Palm Springs. Commissioned by interior designer Arthur Elrod in 1968, the cliffside residence appeared as Willard Whyte’s hideaway in the James Bond classic, Diamonds Are Forever and has since become one of the most recognizable homes of the era.

The Overby House

Designed by Swedish architect John Robert Nilsson, the Overby House is located on Varmdo, one of the small outlying islands near Stockholm. The sleek, contemporary summer home, which features floor-to-ceiling glass, was featured in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Skyline Residence

The Skyline Residence, which was designed by Belzberg Architects and featured in Crazy Stupid Love, sits atop a ridge in the Hollywood Hills. The stunning, 5,800-square-foot residence was snapped up by Pharell in 2015.

Sheats-Goldstein Residence

Designed by John Lautner in 1963, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the Hollywood Hills was featured in the cult classic The Big Lebowski. The living room—which has become known, fittingly, as the “Big Lebowski Room”—boasts a curvy, concrete-and-leather sofa that resulted from a collaboration between homeowner James Goldstein and Lautner. The ceiling is covered with sandblasted concrete that still features the original miniature circular skylights.

Hoke House

Located on the border of Portland, Oregon’s Forest Park and designed by Skylab Architecture, the Hoke House was the residence of Edward Cullen and his family in Twilight.

The Lovell House

Designed and built by Richard Neutra in the late 1920s, the Lovell House was the first steel-frame home in the United States and an early example of the use of gunite—a spray-on concrete. The International-style home was considered to be a turning point in Neutra’s career. It appeared in the 1997 film L.A. Confidential and the 2011 film Beginners.

Casa Malaparte

Casa Malaparte is a villa that was built in 1938 for Curzio Malaparte, an Italian magic realist writer, by the Italian architect Adalberto Libera. Perched on a cliff on the island of Capri, the home was featured in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 drama, Contempt—which also starred the legendary Brigitte Bardot.

The Sculptured House

Built in 1965 outside Denver, the Sculptured House is a three-level, elliptically curved structure designed by Charles Deaton. Originally designed as a sculpture, the 7,500-square-foot home was featured in Woody Allen’s futuristic 1973 comedy, Sleeper.

The Schaffer Residence

Designed by architect John Lautner in 1949, the very elegant, midcentury-modern Schaffer Residence is located in Glendale, California. The covetable home was featured in Tom Ford’s acclaimed film A Single Man.

The Ben Rose House

The Ben Rose House was designed by modernist architect A. James Speyer, a student of Mies van der Rohe. The glass-and-steel box was built in 1953 and is located in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park. The iconic home was featured in the 1986 classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and was designated an official local landmark in 1987.

The Ennis House

Located in the Loz Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, The Ennis House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924. An example of Wright’s Mayan Revival architecture, the Ennis House has made many an onscreen appearance; however, it reached peak popularity in Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic, Blade Runner.

The Stahl House

One of Los Angeles’s most iconic midcentury homes, the Stahl House, also known as Case Study House No. 22, was designed by Pierre Koenig in 1960. Perched on the top of the Sunset Strip with floor-to-ceiling walls of glass and epic views of the city below, the Stahl House is understandably a cinema darling, making a memorable appearance as the home of soap opera doctor Greg Kinnear in Neil LaBute’s 2000 film, Nurse Betty.

Shop the Look

The Chemosphere

Our third Lautner design on the list, The Chemosphere, which is located in Los Angeles on the San Fernando Valley side of the Hollywood Hills, was designed in 1960. The modernist home was cast in Brian De Palma’s cult classic Body Double in 1984. The one-of-a-kind residence is notable for both its octagon shape and the fact that it is perched atop a 30-foot-high, 5-foot-wide concrete pole.

Ridgetop House

Known as Ridgetop, the Davis Family residence was designed by architect David Fowler for his mother in 1963. The midcentury home formed a perfect circle wrapped around an open courtyard with a pool and was located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Beverly Crest. Ridgetop made an appearance in the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious as the undercover headquarters of the LAPD and the FBI. However, the home was coveted for its spectacular views and its location high in the hills, and despite the efforts of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, Ridgetop was sold and demolished. Now it is the site of the Pritzker Estate, home of billionaire Anthony Pritzker, one of several heirs to the Hyatt Hotel fortune.

Boulder Reign

Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, known for his futuristic Arcosanti community in the Arizona desert, also designed Boulder Reign, a home that made an appearance in the 1970 American cult film Zabriskie Point directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.

Jaffe House (Skybreak House)

Designed by architects Su Brumwell, Wendy Cheeseman, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers, the modernist interiors of the Jaffe House, also known as the Skybreak House, made an appearance the dystopian cult film A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Palais Bulles

The sprawling pink Palais Bulles (“Bubble Palace”) is located in Théoule-sur-Mer, near Cannes, in the south of France. The futuristic-looking home, designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag and constructed between 1975 and 1989, was actually inspired by early human cave dwellings. Built for a French industrialist, Palais Bulles is most famous for having been the holiday home of fashion designer Pierre Cardin. Palais Bulles appeared in 2016’s Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie as the home of a character appropriately named Bubbles.

The Ravine House

Atom Egoyan’s film Chloe (2009) showcases both the city of Toronto and the Ravine House by Drew Mandel Architects. However, the owners of the Ravine House didn’t want the facade of their home to appear in the film, so all the exterior shots are actually of another home down the street: the Heathdale House by another Toronto-based architect Stephen Teeple.

Villa Necchi Campiglio

Villa Necchi Campiglio’s grand staircase and stately, marble corridors set the scene in Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (2009) as the cinematic home of the Recchis, a family of Milanese textile manufacturers. Once home to the actual Necchi Campiglio family, the residence was built by Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi between 1932 and 1935 and is an example of Italian Rationalist architecture. Located in the center of Milan, Villa Necchi is now a period museum open to the public.

Nocturnal Animals

This Malibu house designed by Scott Mitchell made an appearance as the chic home of art gallery owner Susan Morrow, played by Amy Adams in Nocturnal Animals, the 2016 neo-noir psychological thriller written, produced, and directed by fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford.

The Sherman Residence

The Sherman Residence makes an appearance as the scene of the crime in the Anthony Hopkins– and Ryan Gosling–led thriller Fracture (2007). Set on a hillside above the San Fernando Valley, this rustic contemporary home was designed by Peter Tolkin + Sara Lorenzen Architecture. Surrounded by nature, the 6,500-square-foot, one-level home comprises a series of pavilions constructed of board-formed concrete, wood, and glass.

Did we miss one that's your favorite? Let us know in the comments and we'll add it to our list!

Also Appears In

Page Goolrick's Favorite Buildings