Kalahari Sci-fi Meets Desert Modernism

About 260km south of Windhoek, on the edge of the Kalahari’s eastern border, is an otherwordly desert pod called Reverie – a place that invites solitude and a real connection with the earth.

WORDS & PRODUCTION Steve Smith PHOTOS Dook

Your first view of Reverie’s white domes emerging from the red Kalahari sands will almost certainly result in one of two impressions. You might get Sven Staby’s original vision. When the Namibian architect considered the Kalahari shapes, forms and elements that could inspire a structural design, on his list were termite hills, weavers’ nests, camelthorn trees… and ostrich eggs. Their hard protective shells inspired an organic structure with domed ceilings and interconnected interior spaces that honours the unique geography of this starkly beautiful environment.

That, or you’re going geek out on Star Wars. Because it really does look like Reverie could be the swankier property next door to Luke’s homestead on Tatooine. Suddenly, your Toyota Fortuner is a landspeeder hovering above the desert – and in front of you, a white wonder shimmers in the late-afternoon heat. You can practically hear the rumble of an approaching Jawa Sandcrawler and the thrum of Obi-Wan’s lightsabre.

Whichever option these images evoke for you, one thing is shared: the force is strong here. There’s a unique and powerful perception of being part of the desert when you’re at Reverie; an overwhelming sense of peace that’s as much about where you are as it is about the very special structure that Sven and the team at Gondwana Collection have designed and built.

Where you are is on a 10 000-hectare former karakul farm that’s also home to Gondwana Collection’s Kalahari Anib Lodge and campsite. Not that you ever see these when staying at Reverie – the pod is remote, tucked away on a private part of the farm about 8km from any signs of civilisation. It sleeps two people and comes fully stocked with food and drink, replenished each day by a concierge. While you can choose to have meals prepared for you by your own chef, guests generally don’t want that. “It’s a special place,” says Alain Noirfalise, Gondwana Collection’s operations director. “What you get here is solitude. Our guests are looking for that. Even though we offer a full concierge service, guests often ask us to leave the food at the entrance each day. They prefer to be left alone.”

Sven and Gondwana Collection have enjoyed a long and successful working relationship – he’s designed a number of projects for this Namibian lodge and camp business. “Sven is an old-school architect; he draws everything by hand,” says Alain. “Often, we sit together and doodle on paper napkins – then he does an architectural drawing and builds from that.” Old-school as the process may be, there’s a particular magic in designing this way. You get a strong sense of that original hand-drawn line in the physical structure. It’s the building’s soul.

Bringing that soul to life here was not without its challenges. The main one was finding the perfect spot for Sven’s design. “This involved lots of beers, lots of driving around, and lots of lying down on dunes. And more beers!” says Alain. Clearly, work and play can mix, because Reverie ended up in the perfect spot. It sits atop a large, flat dune, with two more dunes on opposing sides, and is flanked by open vistas that afford great views of the sunrise and sunset to the left and right.

The pod is supported by bent wood structural trusses fashioned by Christian Hess, a carpenter trained in Germany. “He’s one of the only people in the world who’s able to bend large pieces of wood into these shapes,” says Alain. The trusses are clad in wooden planks, which were measured and precisely cut to size on site. Sandwiched between the exterior and interior cladding is a layer of insulation made from recycled plastic bottles.

Another person whose touch is everywhere is self-described Namibian “interior artist”, Melanie Redecker van der Merwe of Women Unleashed design agency. She has worked on many of Gondwana Collection’s interiors, and they have an usual but successful client-designer relationship. “I never get a brief from Alain,” she says. “Once the architect and builders leave, he simply says, ‘There’s your space. Go for it; make it happen.’ He basically hands over a shell, and I figure out what to do to it. We’ve come a long way together; there’s a lot of trust.”

Melanie’s point of departure is to feel a space – her approach is to see, lie down in and just experience a place before she designs anything. “This felt like a soft, very feminine space to me. It had that feeling of a womb, the mother, the egg – organic and nurturing.” The result is a light, golden colour palette, organic shapes and tactile fabrics, from the curtains to the macramé-strung loungers. “I want Reverie’s guests to feel the unfiltered realness of the Kalahari – the sound of the birds, the wind, the silence,” says Melanie. “I want people to be in the moment.”

And that moment is the real magic of the place. There’s an overwhelming sense of seclusion here, but not in a scary, solitary way. It’s a deep sense of quiet, of being connected to your surroundings, of being at peace. Getting back to that Star Wars vibe, it really feels as though you have arrived on another planet – a starkly beautiful landscape where there are no other inhabitants. Not even Jawas. And you don’t get more solitude than that. | gondwana-collection.com

Don’t forget to sign up to our weekly newsletter for the latest architecture and design news.