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Lounge : Angus and Rina in the sitting room in front of one of Rina's oil paintings. -
Studio : Rina and Angus work side by side. The bust is Angus's head. -
Lounge : The lounge contains an etching by Diane Victor titled Upstream and a small oil-on-board work by Kevin Robers called Lady with the Blue Ribbons in her hair.
PHOTOS: Dook | PRODUCTION: Trevyn & Julian McGowan | WORDS: Nia Magoulianiti-McGregor
Sculptor Angus Taylor and painter Rina Stutzer live and work in a Pretoria home that is something of a gallery for their creations.
Angus Taylor was the ‘dream client willing to experiment’ says architect Pieter Mathews of Mathews and Associates Architects. But then, Pieter may have also been the dream architect by allowing the architecture be a backdrop for art.
“My associate Liam Purnell and I wanted to make sure that there was an awareness of Angus as an artist,” says Pieter. “Even the windows either point towards an artwork or frame a vista towards a unique piece.”
It also helped that Angus, who found his plot by mountain-biking through the area one day, is a “hands-on” builder.
“We could try things that might not otherwise have been possible,” explains Pieter. “He had the know-how to source materials and the artistic flair to make it happen.” The granite-block cladding on the outside walls is an example. The floors are unpolished granite with drill marks part of the design.
‘Just design it’
The ceilings are off-shutter concrete. Angus recalls telling Pieter, “Just design it, and don’t worry, it will happen.” Happen it did.
“We’re both artists,” says Angus referring to his new wife Rina Stutzer, a painter who has recently exhibited at the Everard Read in Rosebank. “That means there isn’t an enormous amount of money to throw around, plus we also like to get stuck in.”
Angus recounts that he could weld by the time he was seven, so made his own steel railings for this house, as well as the bevel-cut polished box windows that each comprise a half ton of steel. “Because Rina and I work with materials, we believe in their integrity. We never elevate them. If anything, we humble them.” While Angus has his own foundry, both do a lot of work at home.
The studio therefore needed heavy-duty cement floors reinforced with steel to cope with the granite and metals Angus uses. “Rina and I both want to make seven artworks at the same time,” he laughs. So the house was developed to allow the living space to be either separate from the studio or part of it.
First a studio
Angus, who started the project before Rina came along, briefed the architects that: “It must preferably be a studio first of all and a house second.”
Rina says their home works for another reason: “Angus is a tall guy so everything is larger than the normal scales.
You can breathe here. I love that the outside is always inside.” “There is no ‘hoo-ha’ to this house,” says Angus. “No columns with a moerse front door. It’s simple, purpose-driven architecture.”
• Mathews and Associates Architects: 0861 116 222, www.maaa.co.za
• Angus Taylor: 012 803 2369, www.angustaylor.co.za
