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Lucky number 13 : The stoep boasts views of Voorstrand and Tientjie to the right. Johann likes the fact that you can see both nature and architecture in one view. -
Lucky number 13 : Johann and Rene on the beach with Frida and Frankie. -
Lucky number 13 : The open-plan kitchen and living room. The wooden beams of the roof are made from salvaged wood from a ship that lost its load at sea. Most of the furnishings for Dertien come from the Slees’ old Johannesburg home. -
Lucky number 13 : A Dog Day Afternoon: Frida the Schnauzer keeps watch over the generous stoep, furnished with Johann Slee’s own interpretation of Gerrit Rietveld’s classic Crate chair. -
Lucky number 13 : The bathrooms are finished in the kind of mosaic tiles normally reserved for swimming pools. The quirky mirror is made from an old toilet seat originally from Rhenish Girls' School. Johann received it from a friend. -
Lucky number 13 : Rene’s Scrabble table in front of the fireplace. A typical feature of vernacular fireplaces in the Cape is a small window in the back wall of the hearth. Johann exaggerated this feature to frame the view outside.
PHOTOS Greg Cox | PRODUCTION Etienne Hanekom | WORDS Alma Viviers
Dertien is the first house for himself and his family that renowned architect Johann Slee has designed and built from scratch.
Architect Johann Slee is known for designing signature residences like the Red House, featured in the Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture or the Stone House that won him a SAIA Merit award in 2008. Both are imposing contemporary structures carved out of solid forms. So it is somewhat surprising that when, for the very first time, he designed his own home from scratch, it was not in his own signature style but rather in the vernacular of the little coastal village of Paternoster.
It was the authenticity of Paternoster and it’s distinctive character, along with the fact that it is only an hour and a half’s drive from their home and studio on Dorp Street in Stellenbosch, that seduced the Slees to buy in Paternoster. “You do the math of what you can afford and what you like,” Johann explains. “There is a realness to Paternoster and we liked the fact that this specific plot is in a settled, established neighbourhood. We also wanted a view of the sea and that nobody can build in front of us here.”
The view from their generous stoep is framed on both sides by existing houses. On the one side is Tientjie (featured in VISI 56), the modest fisherman’s cottage that the Slees also took under their wing as overflow accommodation.
For their main holiday home they wanted an open, sociable house where one would feel connected to others even when there on your own; a place big enough to accommodate friends and family but intimate enough for just Johann and René.
An ‘H’ minus the legs
In typical Paternoster style, the house has a pitched roof with whitewashed walls and wooden shutters in a grey-green shade. Inside, no-fuss materials and finishes, like the durable Maplette flooring, aluminium frames and exposed wooden beams, give the house an honest simplicity.
The plan is a basic H-shape minus one of the legs. From the street side, the courtyard between the two wings (one housing the kitchen and the other the bedrooms) forms a generous stoep, while the opposite courtyard with built-in braai is covered to create a protected space when the weather turns.
The open-plan kitchen with its long, wooden table and a built-in wood-fired pizza oven – the only design requirement from their children – is the communal meeting place. Here, the family spends evenings making pizzas together: “Everyone gets involved, making dough and chopping toppings,” says Johann.
Johann also likes to set up his easel in the courtyard where diffused light filters through polycarbonate roofing. He paints what he finds beautiful – a bundle of fish bought from local fishermen, a vase of reeds, and some fynbos. “On some days the light hits the water and it goes all silver; I try to capture that light,” he says.
While Johann is painting away, you’ll find René reading on the stoep or at her Scrabble table. “I love Scrabble, but nobody ever wants to play with me, so I’ve developed one-man Scrabble,” she laughs. “I play my right hand off against my left hand!”
Asked if painting influences his approach to architecture, Johann ponders for a moment: “I suppose it is all about a way of seeing; about observation. I think it trains your eye. Design depends on having a good eye, you have to know when a proportion or composition is right.”
Another discernable influence on his approach was the move from Gauteng to the Western Cape in 2008. “Things are more contextual here,” Johann explains. “I feel you have to be more respectful of what’s happening around you.” He goes on to say that it is much more difficult to recognise the vernacular in Gauteng, since it is dwarfed by rapid development, whereas in the Western Cape, the vernacular of the different places is much stronger.
“But it also has to do with age,” he admits. “When you are young and ambitious you go all out and do whatever you like but as you get older you realise the importance of responding with sensitivity to your surroundings.”
TAKE NOTE: Johann and René Slee reveal the true colours of their rustic, West-Coast fisherman’s cottage in VISI 56.
• Slee and Co Architects: 021 887 3385, slee.co.za
