South Rand House

WORDS Adéle de Lange PRODUCTION Annemarie Meintjes PHOTOS Dook


Tucked away into the sloping hills of the Joburg Highveld, this open-hearted home lets nature take centre stage as it floods the senses with a lingering sense of light, space and a love for outdoor living.

Everyone knows that taking the wrong off-ramp on one of the Gauteng highways can be asking for disaster. Fortunately for Wim and Mitzi Hollander, the disaster turned into the best mistake they ever made when they discovered the tranquil Eye of Africa golf estate, conveniently situated just far enough south to shake off Joburg’s non-stop hustle and bustle, but still only 17km from the city centre.

Their unconventional steel-clad house, which seems on the verge of disappearing down the slope of a koppie, is the work of Johan Wentzel and Grete van As from W Design Architecture Studio. “We love to invite people inside just to see the look of surprise on their faces,” Wim laughs. True to his word, the secretive exterior hides a spacious gem filled with views as far as the eye can see.

Commissioning Johan and Grete was based on how “their designs really capture the essence of what is great about living in Africa,” says Wim. “For us, that means letting nature into our home – and to celebrate the light side of life.” The most striking manifestation of this is the roof of the lower level of the house, which is planted with indigenous grass, extending the garden below. By using the same steel cladding for the roof and the upper-level walls, the house creates the impression of being a single-storey building.  

Inspired by the couple’s theme for the house of “the bearable lightness of living”, the architects came up with a concept to capture lightness in the design that would defy the conventional notions of a house. Johan explains: “We prefer to focus on the spaces that we want to create, instead of the solid structures that surround it – and with this house we really wanted to break free from the predictable boundaries that define space as a room with four walls and a roof.”

South Rand House
The floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors are all that separate inside from outside, with the open-plan kitchen expanding seamlessly onto the outdoor patio area.

As such, oversized sliding doors extend the living area seamlessly into the garden, with views across the estate’s landscaping beyond. The all-in-one living, dining and kitchen area transforms effortlessly into a roomy entertainment area, and a recessed boma in the corner of the garden provides the perfect spot for stargazing around a fire.

Surprisingly, the internal courtyard was not part of the original design but was added to give the guest bedrooms access to north-facing sunlight, which is ideal for our climate. Aside from being the perfect picture of tranquillity, the addition of the pond has a practical side to it, too – it creates a visual barrier between the guest rooms and the living area. “When nobody’s visiting, we virtually forget about that part of the house, but we have the extra space whenever we need it,” Mitzi points out. 

“This is my favourite part of the house – everywhere I look I am surrounded by beauty. I can sit in the living room and watch the butterflies flit from one flower to the next, or stare out over the valley below,” she beams. 

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