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A huge swivel door, featuring a custom handle in resin and bronze adapted from a sculptural design in collaboration with artist Jeanie Steyn, marks the entrance to the home. -
A pan-handle driveway lined with Dombeya rotundifolia leads guests to the standing-seam aluminium-clad buildings. -
The home’s central passage is lined with oak veneer flush-panel BICs, which house the DB board, linen and shoe racks. -
Bringing life to the neutral palette, a work by South African artist Nelson Makamo takes pride of place over a Lorrie console by The Grand Living. -
Under a skylight, a slatted wood-clad wall cleverly conceals the doorway to a guest bedroom. -
Guests to the home are guided over the gravel to the front door. -
A swivel windows on central pivots give the facade an architectural edge. -
Now attached to the side of the old milkshed and offering access to the work-from-home studio, the spiral staircase had to be hoisted over the wall with a crane. -
Instead of drainpipes, the team at JRD Studio chose to install naturally rusted mild-steel chains that empty into soakaways embedded in the ground and filled with pebbles. -
Cabinets in matt black board by Egger, Infinity countertops in Absolute Black and a black-clad extractor result in a kitchen that’s full of contrast. -
Under the canopy of trees, the amphitheatre is the main feature in the exterior landscape. Designed in collaboration with close friend and landscaper Maren Bodenstein, each of the five concentric levels features a distinct selection of plants. -
Sleek loungers and patio furniture by Vondom, imported by Core Furniture, enhance the contemplative mood of the garden. -
Mentis-style screens designed to withstand time and the elements create discreet enclaves and private sanctuaries. -
With a custom Bella sofa, gliding Brooks coffee table (on wheels) and West leather chairs, all by The Grand Living, the open-plan lounge is geared for laid-back and sophisticated parties. -
A piece of history reimagined, the dilapidated milkshed was turned into a work and living space that’s in harmony with its surroundings. -
Fighting Cocks by the dark prince of South African pop art, Brett Murray, provides stimulating dining discourse against the backdrop of sliding privacy screens. -
Art by William Kentridge adorns the walls in the master bedroom, emphasising the neutral palette and complementing the charcoal linen. -
Fantine glass pendants flank the bed, while the clerestory window allows natural light to stream in from the bathroom atrium. -
In the bathroom, large-format tiles on walls and floors encourage relaxation, while gold tapware and accessories add warmth. The open atrium and outdoor shower amid the potted bamboo garden amplify the feeling of calm.
Joburg-based architectural and interior design company JRD Studio has transformed a tired property – and a milkshed – into a contemporary three-bedroom home. It starts in C; watch Jimi for the changes…
WORDS Steve Smith PHOTOS Elsa Young
How they cover a song is a telling indicator of a musician’s talent. Think of Johnny Cash’s haunting reinterpretation of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, or Jimi Hendrix’s rework of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”. The songs aren’t faithful copies, but in each case the singer has managed that trick of retaining the original’s emotional essence while adding a deeper resonance to its meaning. You can still hear the original in there, but the new version gives it greater significance. The story of the song has been added to, making it relevant to a new audience.
How an architect renovates a building is basically the same thing. Of course, you can do a faithful restoration – and to retain our architectural heritage, that’s often what’s needed for buildings of great provenance. However, for old structures that have little heritage value, you can also do a reno that reimagines the house for contemporary living. Rather than the easy (and decidedly unsustainable) option of demolishing and building from scratch, this gives an architect an opportunity to both remain sympathetic to the original and breathe new life into a tired building.
And that’s exactly what Joao Ribeiro, director at JRD Studio, and his team have done with this property in Morningside – one that included the original milkshed that supplied dairy to the area’s past residents. Over time, not only were new rooms haphazardly added, but the property was neglected, resulting in an awkward flow and a patchwork feel to the home. It was, in Joao’s own words, a “monumental task, if you consider the original warren-like divisions we were presented with”.
The client’s brief didn’t make it any easier. The homeowner looks after his two schoolgoing nephews during the week and often has guests staying on weekends – and that meant a brief to create a private space for the main bedroom, with secluded access to the pool, patio, lounge and kitchen. It needed to be separate from the other two bedrooms while still providing an alternate lounging space for guests. Oh, and a work-from-home space, too.
“We achieved this by designing an overly generous central passage,” says Joao. “It connected all the areas while also offering privacy when required.” At 2.35m wide, it’s a clever piece of design, with a scale that doesn’t read as a traditional indoor passage. In fact, flooded as it is with natural light via an internal clerestory window, it also acts as a gallery space for the owner’s extensive South African art collection.
To further bake in a flow that enhanced his client’s daily lifestyle, Joao changed many of the spaces’ original functions. The original master bedroom became part of the entrance and central walkway; the original dining room and enclosed patio became the master bedroom with the addition of an internal bathroom; and a generous open atrium was added, including an outdoor shower and a bamboo garden. “The atrium was essential to the ultimate success of the project,” says Joao. “It eliminated an unsavoury indoor bathroom, and connected the central passage to the endless sky and the garden greenery.
Back to that musical metaphor: a great cover may reinvent a song, but it must still maintain the original’s soul. For Joao, the key to that was retaining the original architecture and exterior walls, the clay roof tiles, as well as the existing pool shape and surrounding clay pavers. And that old, crumbling milkshed outbuilding has been transformed into a sleek, modern work-from-home space the client had asked for. Now clad in standing-seam aluminium, it features an exterior spiral staircase to a loft office; downstairs, an inviting guest suite is made up of a bedroom, a bathroom, a full kitchenette and a lounge.
Inside, given the owner’s vibrant art collection, JRD Studio opted for a neutral colour palette as the ideal backdrop. “However,” says Joao, “we achieved movement and dynamics by incorporating textures, scale and clever lighting, as well as varied organic and geometric shapes in the fixtures, fittings and soft furnishings.”
Joao describes the architectural and interior design style of this home as “classic minimalism”. It’s certainly an accurate term for the contemporary aesthetic – but it’s also a smart one to employ when overcoming the challenges of modernising an old structure. “For me, classic minimalism is characterised by simplicity and functionality, with a focus on essential elements, a restrained colour palette, high-quality materials and uncluttered spaces,” says Joao. “You can achieve it by favouring an open plan with clean lines that contribute to a sense of order. Natural materials such as wood, glass, metal and stone will enhance elegance.”
Think of it as a simple Morningside folk song, reinterpreted: the melody is still there, but the instrumentation has changed and the vocals have replaced campfire delivery with a more layered, more textured sound. A song well sung, Joao. | jrdstudio.co.za
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