THE MAKING OF A MODERN HOUSE

ARCHITECTS

All of the architects listed below are guaranteed pure modern, free from pastiche and come with the Prince of Wales's stamp of disapproval:

Mark Guard Architects, 161 Whit-field Street, London W1P 5RY (0171-380 1199).

Pip Horne, 326 Portobello Road, London W10 5RU (0181-960 8364).

Eva Jiricina Architects, 7 Dering Street, London W1R 9AB (0171-629 7077).

Powell-Tuck Associates, 12 Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4PH (0181-747 9988).

Claudio Silvestrin, 46b Milner Square, London N1 1TW (0171-323 6564).

Stanton Williams, 10 Hugenot Place, Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ (0171- 247 3171).

FURNITURE

Aram Designs, 3 Kean Street, London WC2B 4AT (0171-240 3933) and 65 Heath Street, London NW3 6UG (0171-431 4008). Ze'ev Aram is the Grand Old Man of modern furniture - there is nothing frivolous about his Covent Garden showroom. The branch that his daughter Ruth runs in Hampstead is more browser-friendly: the exhibition "Whose House is it Anyway?", which explores the problems of furnishing modern interiors, runs there until 23 April (open Sunday pm, closed Mondays).

SCP, 135-139 Curtain Road, Lon-don EC2A 3BX (0171-739 1869). Sheridan Coakley, the owner, is another retailer who takes modern furniture seriously. As well as remaining faithful to the architectural staples - le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe - he rigorously promotes classics of the future by designers such as Matthew Hilton and Jasper Morrison.

Viaduct Furniture, 1-10 Summer's Street, London EC1R 5BD (0171-278 8456). An interesting range of own-brand designs in metal and wood with the emphasis on natural finishes, as well as furniture imported from all over Europe.

Arkansas Design Ltd, 4 Campfield Arcade, Castlefield Avenue, Manchester M3 4FN (0161-839 1211). Mancunian modernists make a beeline here for the best in European furniture.

Inhouse, 28 Howe Street, Edinburgh EH3 6TG (0131-225 2888) and 24/26 Wilson Street, Merchant City, Glasgow G1 1SS (0141-552 5902). Inhouse has long been committed to the very best in modern design and regularly tranfuses its stock with new blood from Europe.

The Conran Shop, Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 6RD (0171- 589 7401). Favourite haunt of the designerly insecure: the furniture here has been so well edited that you can just close your eyes and point and know that it will pass the taste test. Particularly good for enormous sofas in bright colours that hold their own against powerful architecture.

Country and Eastern, 8 Redwell Street, Norwich NR2 4SN (01603 623107). The monumental scale of ethnic furniture is often better suited to modern interiors than the more elegant lines of recent Western designs. Country and Eastern imports, newly made and older cupboards, dining tables and chests from India and Indonesia: the biggest pieces are stored in a newly converted Victorian skaing rink which is open by appointment. The company also has a London branch at 3 Holland Street, W8 4NA (0171-938 2711).

FITTINGS

Bisque, 15 Kingsmead Square, Bath BA1 2AE (01225 469244) and 244 Belsize Road, London NW6 4BT (0171-328 2225). If underfloor heating is beyond your budget, architecturally approved radiators are the next best thing. Hottest style is the Classic, a throwback to the old schoolroom blaster.

Alternative Plans, 9 Hester Road, London SW11 4AM (0171-228 6460). Uncompromisingly modern Italian bathroom fittings.

CP Hart, Newnham Terrace, Hercules Road, London SE1 7DR (0171-928 5866). Stockists of the new Philippe Stark range of sanitary fittings, designed around primitive tub imagery.

Bulthaup, 37 Wigmore Street, Lon-don W1H 9LD (telephone 0171-495 7220 for stockists). Where money is not an object few modernists can resist the sleek, efficient lines of a Bulthaup kitchen.

FLOORING AND TEXTILES

Ian Mankin, 271 Wandsworth Bridge Road, London SW6 2TX (0171-371 8825). Also at 109 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 8UR (0171-722 0997). Simple no-fuss fabrics - checks and stripes about as extravagant as they get.

Russell & Chapple, 23 Monmouth Street, London WC2H 9DE (0171-836 7521). Utility fabrics such as canvas, hessian and duck for understated window treatments and shrouding your chairs.

Crucial Trading, 77 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH (0171-221 9000). Slate floors too punishing? Seagrass matting is about as yielding as you are allowed to go underfoot if you want to call yourself modern. Everybody is doing it now, but Crucial Trading were the first on the market.