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The gardens on Esse’s rural campus were designed by landscape artist Simon Clements. -
Liberal use of sliding glass partitions and doors opens the interiors of Richard Stretton’s organic timber-framed building to the outdoors. -
Liberal use of sliding glass partitions and doors opens the interiors of Richard Stretton’s organic timber-framed building to the outdoors. -
Liberal use of sliding glass partitions and doors opens the interiors of Richard Stretton’s organic timber-framed building to the outdoors.
WORDS Jess Nicholson PHOTOS Roger Jardine
Richard Stretton’s new building for skincare brand Esse is a gem of progressive design in the KwaZulu-Natal farmlands.
Every few weeks, teams of doctors and therapists from across the world travel to a small farm outside Richmond in rural KwaZulu- Natal to train in the science of rewilding skin.
Trevor Steyn, a chemist, who started the organic-skincare company Esse in 2002, wanted to host his training courses in a space that was practical, yet flexible enough to allow visitors to take swabs and grow samples, treat patients, train in biotechnology, chat over cocktails – and which, by design, automatically communicates what Esse is about.
The company is fair trade, certified organic, vegan, cruelty-free and carbon- and plastic-neutral. “All our products are safe and recyclable, including the packaging, so nothing bad leaches out,” says Trevor. “We audit our energy consumption and offset any emissions with carbon credits. The main idea is that a healthy skin microbiome keeps skin looking younger for longer. Rewilding means returning skin to a balanced state within an environment where natural microbes can flourish.”
Award-winning architect Richard Stretton of Koop Design, who created the new Esse building, describes Esse’s process as “organic tech”, and applied a similar approach to the architecture. “I am not a person who works on inspiration,” he says. “I undertake projects with a deep sense of responsibility – and so I dig. Here, I wanted to work out how a new building could enhance the Esse campus and reflect the brand’s core values, but also how the humans within it will use it into the future.”
Aligned precisely to Trevor’s skin-rewilding philosophy, Richard decided to invite the surrounding forests inside and bring the garden into the building, exposing users to an even richer natural biome. An underground pipe pumps in cool, fresh air from the centre of the forest floor; large verandas to the east and north blur the line between exterior and interior; and benches are scattered throughout the landscape to allow for incidental chats or quiet reflection. Even the stairs are considered, flowing organically and doubling up as informal outside seating.
“Esse is a carbon-neutral business, and uses methods deeply founded in nature,” says Richard. “The best way to achieve carbon neutrality in architecture is to use timber. Esse’s products are also highly technical, in the same way that modernised timber construction is – down to the way beams are made to ensure they are sustainable and reliably engineered. The actual wooden plank you buy is generally made up of wood cut up and stuck together – that process means the recovery from the tree is greater.”
The links between the building and the brand run deep, as does Richard and Trevor’s shared capacity for innovation and commitment to sustainable living. At the same time, it is a simple place – pure, light, airy, functional – which flexes to suit a plethora of purposes. “The building is not trying to be a flower,” says Richard. “It is a pragmatic space, built with consideration. It is trying to encompass and respond to the principles of what Esse does.”
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