The residents of Alto Aragon, a drab 16-story apartment building on the Avenida 12 de Octubre in Quito, look down onto the roofs and gardens of one of the finest modernist houses in Ecuador. Seen from the busy six-lane road, the flat cornice of the house is just visible above a high garden wall that curves down a side road, leading to two doorways: one sized for a car, the other, at a more human scale, opening onto lush greenery. When the Czech architect and painter Karl Kohn designed the house for his family 75 years ago, it was at the edge of the city, where unpaved streets faded into the rolling countryside. His wife, Vera Kohn, recalls that when they moved into the house in 1949, it “was like a hacienda, where cows and donkeys wandered by”; Katya Kohn Bernasconi, one of their daughters, remembers horses drinking from the fountain in the garden. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Fifty-One Buy Now Related Stories Interiors Issue 50 Atelier Vime Inside the Provençal home that inspired a craft revival. Interiors Issue 47 Home Tour: Vill’Alcina For nearly 50 years, architect Sergio Fernandez has found political purpose and refuge at his vacation home. Interiors Issue 45 Home Tour: Ollivier & Gladys Chenel A pas de deux inside an antiques-filled Paris apartment. Interiors Issue 44 Home Tour: Gergei Erdei Inside the London apartment uniting Greek mythology, medieval iconography and 1970s glamour. Interiors Issue 43 Home Tour: Rose Uniacke An elegant palazzo—in Pimlico. Design Interiors Issue 41 Home Tour: Patricia Reid Baquero Cloistered behind ancient walls and crammed with a catalog of curios, an interior designer’s Santo Domingo home is an autobiography writ from ruins.
Interiors Issue 47 Home Tour: Vill’Alcina For nearly 50 years, architect Sergio Fernandez has found political purpose and refuge at his vacation home.
Interiors Issue 45 Home Tour: Ollivier & Gladys Chenel A pas de deux inside an antiques-filled Paris apartment.
Interiors Issue 44 Home Tour: Gergei Erdei Inside the London apartment uniting Greek mythology, medieval iconography and 1970s glamour.
Design Interiors Issue 41 Home Tour: Patricia Reid Baquero Cloistered behind ancient walls and crammed with a catalog of curios, an interior designer’s Santo Domingo home is an autobiography writ from ruins.