A tricky site with difficult terrain, presented an opportunity to design a remarkable and grown-up home - certainly one for the books. Designing and developing the perfect solution for our visionary clients was truly a memorable task and the result is one of our favourite houses.
An enormous amount of faith was placed in us by the client to solve the sequencing and core spatial design and flow. The overall result is a home that feels so simple, but in the same breath grand and gracious. The property itself was a subdivision of a larger stand, in an aspirational area of Johannesburg.
The site was complicated- long and skinny, with the thin end of the slice north facing. The stand had a 3m fall across a slender width which made it challenging to even start designing let alone build an iconic home.
“With a difficult site always comes the opportunity to develop an exciting plan.”
The layout of the home is an ‘F’ shape, where the stem is single storey that connects to two double storey horizontals. Separate staircases lead up to each horizontal: one bedroom wing is designed for older children and the other a private retreat for the “grown-ups”. The two bedroom wings are linked by an edible rooftop garden (all landscaping designed by the marvellous Tim Steyn) filled with an abundance of herbs and vegetables that thrive on the north facing roof slab over the ground floor living areas.
Upon arrival, the front door opens to a sequence of curved steel doors that form an arched spine connecting all the living areas of the house.
The entrance hall is the first in the sequence of spaces looking down the arched visual spine which flows from inside to outside connecting the garden to the main living areas of the house.
A well lived-in kitchen is the centre and heart of the home and is the fulcrum around which all other living areas carefully pivot. Clever joinery design elements like a raised kitchen table ,both an island and a dining space, serves as an important gathering point in the home. White terrazzo floors lead the way and - any person, piece of furniture or art looks incredible when framed by this blank canvas gallery feel. It was a privilege to work with Sarah Walters Interiors, who meticulously crafted the interior spaces, finishes and furnishings.
Traditionally we would design a pitch roof on our buildings, but in this instance we went with a flat concrete roof slab. Controlling the scale of a building in a tight space is a critical design consideration- We needed to provide a feeling of volume internally but not overwhelm the site with too much built form externally.
The overall ethos and design direction became a contemporary version of Georgian style.
We often find that in the dance between designer and client, the function and materiality of doors and windows come in as an essential part of the design process. The final choice of door and window is not only driven by aesthetics, but also the function. On a house that is flat roofed and monolithic, using one door spec would have left the home feeling quite… well… lifeless.
Door and Window design offers the opportunity to pull the home out of the ordinary, and make the architecture and experience of space truly special. In this home, we introduced unusually high Aluminium and steel doors with custom sections to make them feel as thin as possible.
Upstairs, we used timber doors and windows throughout - it really just helps cosy things up! Clients always ‘hate us for the maintenance’ because like human beings, they require annual botox! Worth it!. The timber window frames do not have cills at balustrade height- this proportion always feels too horizontal and ordinary. Instead we pull the cill down to half a metre off the floor, very grand and compelling and enhances the visual connectivity with the outside. A simple but beautiful black steel balustrade sits on the cill within the white timber, revealing a practical safety layer.
“It might seem counter intuitive, but placing your kitchen at the centre of your home is the correct place. When placed in the guts of the circulation, you can optimise its functionality as the home’s command centre.”
