Thanks to my friend Bob, who set up the trip, I visited architect Philip Johnson’s iconic and in some ways almost cliched “Glass House” outside New Canaan, Connecticut. I say cliched because it’s been so photographed, and its image so disseminated, that it’s easy to see it as a joke. A glass house! Right. How could anyone possibly live there? It’s a concept, not a house.

Visiting it though, it’s easily seen that it’s one, beautiful, and two, easily lived in. And the reason is that the house sits on Johnson’s 49-acre estate. So when you lay down to sleep in a bed surrounded by windows on three sides, it’s meadows and trees that surround you, not prying eyes.The nature is part of the house. This is great – if you have 49 acres.

But I’m not criticizing, just clarifying.

As it happened, the same day I visited Johnson’s glass house I downloaded the new iOS7 operating system for my Iphone. And I was struck by how the physical shape of the phone, with its glass window, was reminiscent of Johnson’s glass house. I think it’s fair to say that  both the Iphone and the Glass House are works of modernism. I’m trying to interest some editors in this idea, so stay tuned.