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In a glass box at the main entrance, above a koi pond, a suspended glass art installation by David Reade mimics the colours and movements of the fish below. A feature wall of slate-stacked gabion baskets brings natural shades and textures into the interior with a sense of honesty and authenticity. -
Architect Gillian Holl of Veld Architects. -
Alongside the carport, a raw cast-concrete wall features a poem by Breyten Breytenbach. -
Descending from the street, a large gabion wall with a striking rusted Corten steel garage door sets the tone. -
The glass box with the David Reade installation as seen from outside. -
Everywhere, the architecture frames views, creating a powerful relationship between the building and its surroundings. -
An aerial view of the house reveals its three-part structure. -
The buildings that make up the homestead are tied together with pathways. -
In the entrance hall, the koi pond extends beneath the floor, covered in glass so the fish can be seen swimming beneath. The artworks above the console table are by Clementina van der Walt, and those on the opposite wall, above the pond, are by Michèle Nigrini. -
In the kitchen, the timber ceiling floats above clerestory windows, its lightness juxtaposed against the more robust quality of the architecture below, and its lattice pattern contrasting the bold expression of steel and concrete. -
Above the dining table is a light installation by Stefanie Schoeman, made with fragments of slate from the gabion walls and quartz found on site. The chips of stone are embedded with tiny LED lights. Together they take the form of the contours of a floating, fragmented landscape: an interpretation of the site around the house with the river running through it. -
The kitchen is framed by steel I-beams, creating an almost industrial element within the shared living and dining area. -
Chickens roam freely amid herb planters in the central kitchen courtyard. -
The shared central living space extends outdoors onto a timber deck sheltered by a laser-cut steel canopy. -
The circular cast-concrete firepit seating is a more organic contrast to the regular, geometric design of the house. -
A green-tiled plunge pool outside the Corten steel-clad section of one of the owner’s “wings” becomes an “object in the landscape”. The breeze-blocks on the left are a collaboration between Wolkberg Casting Studios and Down To The Wire, with poaching snare wire used as decorative detailing within the blocks. -
The dressing room makes use of large glass sliders to retain an open feel, and allowing the natural light, carefully managed with laser-cut screens, to filter through. -
Viewed from outside, the cruciform window in the solid-concrete wall of the bedroom suite is a powerful visual element. -
The pared-back aesthetics in the bathroom create and almost monastic atmosphere. -
Echoing the bedroom, custom bathroom lights were designed and installed in collaboration with Retief van Wyk. -
Custom glass lighting inside one of the bedroom suites was designed and installed in collaboration with artist Retief van Wyk from Glass Forming Academy.
WORDS Graham Wood PHOTOS Dook PRODUCTION Annemarie Meintjes
Built for twin sisters – each with different tastes – this home in Monaghan Farm eco-estate explores how a fusion of art and architecture makes a home’s connection with its setting more profound and meaningful than simply providing a pleasant view.
For Gillian Holl, owner of the award-winning Veld Architects, this must have been one of the more unusual briefs to receive from a client – or, in this case, clients. It was for twin sisters Ansi and Renette Buitendag who, after spending most of their adult lives apart, decided to build a home together. Not only would each have a wing to herself, converging on a shared kitchen, dining and living area, but each had distinct architectural tastes. Renette preferred a Modernist approach – a building with a “connection to the landscape”; while Ansi favoured a style that was “bold, strong and minimalist”.
The location they had selected was on the Monaghan Farm eco-estate in Lanseria – a sunken, tranquil spot below the road, overlooking the Jukskei River. It was a location that demanded further specific considerations too. Only three percent of the land on Monaghan Farm will be developed, so the natural setting will be preserved for posterity. The beautiful landscape of rolling hills, grasslands and rivers poses the question to all architects who build here: what sort of relationship to create between nature and architecture? How best to connect with this landscape? What makes us feel at home here? Both sisters are art lovers, bringing with them substantial collections of art, so the relationship between art and life was also thrown into the mix.
Gillian’s response, in the end, hinged on an old Frank Lloyd Wright quote: “The mother art is architecture.” She would weave Ansi and Renette’s love of art into the very fabric of the building, and through a complex layering of bespoke and collaborative efforts with local artisans, artists and crafters create a home-as-monument that would celebrate life and art. It would be strong and sheltering and, rather than simply delivering pleasing views, mediate a more complex relationship with its setting.
To accommodate Renette’s more Modernist approach, Gillian designed a series of pavilions that open up to their surroundings via large windows and screens, with colonnades and pergolas that seem to extend out into the landscape and scoop it in. Although she chose a material palette in which pure concrete and steel predominate, Gillian points out that there is a level of delicacy and detail in this design that softens it and gives it a feminine character.
For Ansi, Gillian created a series of distinct “sculptural elements in the landscape”: three interconnected buildings – one concrete, one rusted Corten steel, and one clad in metal sheeting reminiscent of barns or agricultural buildings. This part of the house represents an unashamedly robust and object-forming approach to architecture, with distinct, simplified forms.
Marrying the two sections is a central living space, which blends the light and the solid, the robust and the delicate, the bold and the intricate. This more social or communal area is defined by a light roof that floats above a solid base. Clerestory windows allow natural light to wash softly in; a timber latticed ceiling offsets the raw concrete and steel below; and large, laser-cut steel canopies blur the distinction between outside and in. At the entrance, you’re greeted by gabion walls stacked with slate, the stone grounding the building with its “natural” and “authentic” qualities. Its colours also resolve the separate elements, harmonising with the other materials and bringing them together.
Throughout the house, Gillian invited collaborations with a wide range of artists and artisans, crafters and makers. Everywhere you look are unique, beautiful, handcrafted elements: stained-glass windows by The Cutting Edge; custom glass lighting by Glass Forming Academy; and incredible breeze-blocks for which Gillian brought together Wolkberg Casting Studios and Down To The Wire, who create jewellery from poachers’ snares. Much of the cabinetry was designed in collaboration with Veld Architects.
In meeting the challenge of designing a home that would fit in with and add to its beautiful natural setting, Gillian and the owners have responded with a rich, imaginative tapestry of solutions drawn from creative and cultural resources. The house – its robustness, strength and resilience – and its intended longevity are justified as a shelter for humanity’s ongoing and ever-renewable attempts to foster a connection with a place. That celebration makes a home not only for art, but for the inhabitants, too. They’ve dubbed it “Amani”, which means peace in Swahili.
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