-
The pod appears to ‘float’ gently above the landscape, which features a variety of indigenous fynbos plants unique to the Western Cape. -
In the eat-in kitchen area, subway tiling is taken all the way up the wall and partially into the curve, making the space feel larger than it is. Patterned splash-back tiles are from Italtile and black hanging lampshades are from Eagle Lighting. A central hanging lampshade from Incanda is suspended above a table by KolKol Furniture Design, surrounded by dining chairs from Chair Crazy. -
The living area is orientated around the large central fireplace, which features a sleek copper-clad chimney, and is furnished with a slip-covered Coricraft couch, the rugs from Hertex and the blue velvet occasional chair was found at @home. -
Between the living and bedroom areas is a small desk by Wood Fusion Works, based in nearby Bot River. It also functions as a wood storage unit for the adjacent indoor fireplace. The outdoor couch is from Patio Warehouse and KolKol’s furniture design team made the wooden coat rack/towel rail for the hot tub. -
Rudi and his team made the built-in bed and created the simple varnished tree stumps used as bedside tables. The chunky wooden shelf doubles as storage and housing for the bedside light switches. The rug is by Hertex and scatter cushions are from Anza Curtains, Hermanus. -
Wood cladding runs up the bathroom wall through the curve that links it to the ceiling, adding a tactile, natural feel to the space. Rudi and his team made the wooden vanity shelf and put together the basin mixer as well as an ingenious bath spout. The basin and bath are by Crystallite and the round mirror from Mr Price Home. -
KolKol owners and pod creators Rudi and Karen Oosthuyse with five-month-old daughter Liela – the youngest of three, including Ruan, eight, and Karmi, aged five. This part of the exterior deck houses an outdoor cooking area with a built-in fireplace. KolKol Furniture Design created the handmade wooden table.
WORDS Robyn Alexander PHOTOS Warren Heath PRODUCTION Bureaux
At KolKol Mountain Lodge in the Overberg outside Cape Town, Rudi and Karen Oosthuyse have built a contemporary pod that combines smart design with meticulous attention to detail.
On one level this small dwelling in the Overberg is simply a holiday cabin – created and built so that city folk can come to the farm to relax and reconnect with themselves, nature and one another. But it’s also a cabin taken very much to the next level in terms of design.
For a start, there’s the way it’s situated in the landscape, seemingly hovering above it, yet also at one with the slope of the mountainside. “Of course we carefully considered where to place it,” says KolKol owner and pod designer Rudi Oosthuyse, with his usual level of quiet understatement. You need only spend an hour with this innovative thinker to understand that when Rudi modestly says “carefully considered” he actually means, “I spent more than a decade getting to know all this land and then looked with the utmost care at precisely where this structure should be situated, taking into account the views, the movements of the sun, the prevailing winds and the impact on the indigenous fynbos plants that surround it.”
Then there’s the design of the pod itself, which Rudi – along with his wife Karen – also dreamed up pretty much in its entirety. “I’ve always had this sort of shape in my head, so when the time came to build this, I drew it all, and then got an architect to make detailed plans for council approval.”
From the outside, the pod is almost a rigidly rectangular box – except that the roof and floor are connected to the structure’s sidewalls via a gentle curve. The “box” shape was cast on site from reinforced concrete and the severe rectangular lines are softened by the curves, as well as by the fact that the exterior of the concrete shell is entirely clad in rough-hewn, dark-stained timber. This softening effect is further enhanced by thick wooden panels that form the rear wall, in combination with large sliding glass and wood doors at the front. The latter allow for the views to be panoramic even when the pod is entirely closed to the elements, but can also be pushed away completely in front of the main living area and bedroom-bathroom areas.
This is a compact structure: the pod features an indoor space nominally divided into two sections – for living and for sleeping – by a large central fireplace with an integrated copper chimney. The living-area side of this fireplace is open, and the back of it faces the bedroom, with a glass panel that adds a dimension of space-enhancing transparency to the interior while also allowing guests to go to sleep in the colder months with the glowing embers of a warm fire comfortingly visible through the glass. The wooden front deck of the pod runs along its entire length and outside the bedroom-bathroom is an outdoor shower. Then there is a sunken wood-fired hot tub and beyond that, an outdoor dining table, which is in turn adjacent to the interior living and dining area – as well as to the deck’s built-in outdoor cooking zone, right at the end. It all works together as an almost seamless and very pleasing open-plan space.
Along with the many innovations and thoughtful details, it’s finishing touches such as these that make such a small abode both attractive and unique. | kolkol.co.za
Looking for more? Read our feature on 10 Eco-friendly Lodges and Villas. Don’t forget to sign up to our weekly newsletter for the latest architecture and design news.
