Guided by the owners’ brief for a ‘contemporary interpretation’ of a farm-style abode, the architect of this Southdowns Estate home used volume and light to create a modern, minimalist space.

“This plot in Irene’s Southdowns Estate had a wide northern boundary that fronted onto a nature conservation area, which meant we really had free rein when it came to space, volume and light,” says architect Devilliers du Toit. The vision for the house was twofold: “to create a modern home that tested the boundaries of the estate’s farm style-based architectural guidelines; and to create a sense of never-ending open space with uninterrupted views.”

The create a spacious contemporary home for clients, Schalk and Angelique Janse van Rensburg, Devilliers made use of volume to clearly define the main open plan living space. 

The front door opens into the dramatic double-volume entrance hall which, in turn, leads to the living spaces and the centrepiece of the house: the kitchen. The kitchen features a large south-facing gable window to bring natural light into the deep space. “Almost the entire northern edge of the kitchen and living space is composed of frameless glass doors so that, when opened, there is virtually no distinction between inside and outside,” says Devilliers. 

A daring cantilevered timber and glass staircase leads to the first storey where a ‘house-shaped’ opening in the passage looks down into the one-and-a-half volume kitchen. In the closed off private spaces, like the bedrooms, the use of raked ceilings help create a continued sense of space.

A balcony runs the full length of the house with each of the rooms opening onto it to allowing the upstairs rooms to be flooded with natural light.  

While the interior of the house has been kept sparse, light and airy, the exterior has been finished in tonal greys. The exterior finishes have been deliberately kept muted so as to reduce the bulk of the building.  “A darker and lighter grey helps to define the building volumes,” explains Devilliers. 

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Take a look at the colourful, bold contemporary Johannesburg home.

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Pieter Mathews of Mathews + Associates Architects has designed a distinctive, sculptural Flemish barn-inspired home in an Irene Estate that undoes binary preconceptions to create a bold but layered living experience.

Southdowns Residential Estate in Irene, developed on the grounds of a former a dairy farm, has strict aesthetic guidelines. They require that new houses relate architecturally to the “turn of the century” Irene architectural vernacular at the heart of the estate’s identity. They add, however, that a contemporary interpretation of the guidelines is encouraged.

The order and uniformity of the architecture are part of what attracted businessman Albé Geldenhuys to the estate; but when he commissioned Mathews + Associates Architects led by Pieter Mathews, he encouraged them to “think out of the box”. Pieter immediately noticed the prominence of the site Albé had selected and its importance to the character of the estate. It’s on a circle where three roads converge, demanding a certain architectural presence. At the same time, the design needed to tread a fine line between its public street-facing character and Albé’s privacy.

The stand overlooks a large field with mountain-biking paths and running tracks. Luckily, Albé enjoys the buzz of human activity. “It’s energising,” he says, so he didn’t want to be walled off from the sights and sounds that animate the estate.

Albé has travelled widely, living in countries around the world, and the agricultural character required by the estate put him in mind of the Flemish barns he’d first encountered in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. He and Pieter were keen to try out a contemporary take on the style. Flemish barns, with their blackened timber façades, also provided an “original twist”, as Pieter puts it, on the estate requirements without being “gimmicky”.

The simplified archetypal form of the barn – reinterpreted in contemporary materials, dark metal cladding, light timber screens, raw off-shutter concrete and sleek refined detailing – provides a kind of “sculptural composition for the estate”, says Pieter. He refers to it as a billboard for the “less-is-more” take on the vernacular.

At the same time, he points out that the simplicity of the design is deceptive. On closer inspection, the barn-like structure is an elegant and harmonious resolution of a rich variety of materials and forms. In all, Pieter refers to the approach as “simplexity”, in which simplicity and complexity complement rather than contradict each other.

On the one hand, “Albé’s Barn”, as its owner has dubbed the striking street-facing façade, acts as a screen. On the other, it allows a delicately layered transition from the public realm to the private sanctuary at its heart. From the garage, which functions as a kind of foyer, there are glimpses right through the house, and framed views of the field beyond.

The monolithic façade gives way to courtyards and in-between spaces filled with plants. “It’s a visual spatial progression,” says Pieter. You don’t experience the entrance as a barrier or a sharp transition at all; instead, there’s a sense of permeability. On your way out to the pool and lawn beyond, the pergola and the stoep are like a filtering device, Pieter points out, using Australian architect Glenn Murcutt’s term “feathering” to describe the effect.

The way in which glass sliding doors open onto the green pockets not only lets through cooling breezes, but blurs the distinction between inside and out, once again fuzzing binary conceptions. The sleek architectural lines are offset by bursts of organic greenery. “I’m not the best when it comes to plants, but during lockdown, I seem to have developed green fingers,” says Albé with a laugh.

Inside, the barn is unembellished but stylish, allowing the materials to bring character and warmth to the spaces rather than relying on an abundance of furnishing and objects. It’s “more of what you want, less of what you don’t need”, Pieter says. While the ground floor is characterised by raw concrete finishes, the transition upstairs yields to blonde timber cladding.

A subtle choreography of rhythm and repetition – the exposed rafters, for example – progresses through the upstairs spaces. Even from up here, windows look down on the green pockets, and the trees push upwards towards the sky.

Early-rising Albé’s northeast-facing bedroom welcomes the morning light, while the balcony makes a relaxing vantage point from which to enjoy a glass of wine and take in the animating presence of joggers, bikes and family strollers at the end of the day. The whole place is characterised by a calming clarity without ever becoming stark. The complexity is unfussy, bringing warmth, diversity and humanity to the sense of home.

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Take a look at this family home in Bainskloof.

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Building a home in Southdowns Estate in Irene forced architect and owner Friedrich Strey to dream big and think even bigger. After many years of planning and hard work, the house is everything he could have hoped for.

They say all good things come to those who wait. In this case, patience, determination and hard work got architect Friedrich Strey and his wife Wilna through nearly a decade of planning, designing and constructing the place they now call home: a contemporary farm-style house in Southdowns Estate, Irene. The vision for the house was threefold: “to show that one can be sustainable, even in the city; to experiment with different materials, test the capacity of unskilled labour, and recycle and reuse existing materials; and thirdly to use the building as an office while enjoying the lifestyle a farm in the city has to offer.”

The homestead consists of four structures. A barn houses the living areas and bedrooms. Two sheds house the Strey Architects office and there is a loft apartment constructed from light gauge steel framing. A reclaimed brick silo houses the staircase and library lookout, and acts as a link between the office and the living areas. “Double-glazed stacking doors fold away to blur the boundary between the inside and outside living areas,” says Friedrich. “A timber deck forms an extended living or dining area, as well as a pavilion to the lap pool. The pool also serves as water feature and passive cooling device during the hot Highveld summers.”

In this home everything centres on the kitchen, which, in typical South African fashion, is the heart of the house. “One can watch the kids play in the garden or swim in the pool from the glass niche protruding from the kitchen while sipping a cocktail or catching up on social media,” he says. Friedrich designed and assembled much of the furniture and lighting himself, including the kitchen cabinets. He ingeniously included storage for platters and frying pans in the toe space under the kitchen cupboards. In the children’s bedrooms he designed walls that stack away, maximising the passage space by allowing it to form part of the bedrooms.

Rainwater harvesting for household use, grey-water recycling to irrigate the indigenous garden and photovoltaic panels are just some of the elements utilised. Most of these – and a wine cellar – are housed in the basement, which spans the entire footprint of the house. The house took nearly 10 years from planning to completion, during which time Friedrich experimented with a number of building methods and ended up doing much of the work himself. “Through the building and installing, I gained a lot of experience,” he says. “And in the end it really is everything we could have hoped for and more.”

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Searching for the perfect gift? Be sure not to miss one of SA’s most exciting pop-up events in Pretoria this week.

Expect the best in local design and crafts, delicious artisanal food and live music at KAMERS from 1 to 6 December 2015 at Open Window School, Southdowns, Irene.

Just a note:

• KAMERS has added an extra tent to accommodate over 140 exhibitors.
• Follow @kamersvol on Instagram and partake in their Instameet with great prizes to be won on Saturday.
• The KAMERS Wat Inspireer coffee table book will also be available for purchase.

All days run from 9am until 6pm. Entrance is R50 via plankton.mobi (including students and pensioners) and R70 at the gate. Children under 18 gain free entrance.

For more information, visit kamersvol.com.

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Expect the best in local design and crafts, delicious artisanal food and live music at KAMERS from the 2nd to the 7th of December 2014 at Open Window School, Southdowns, Irene.

All days run from 9am to 5pm, except on Friday, which will close at 7pm and on Sunday, which will close at 3pm. Entrance is R50 via ffw.co.za, R60 via facebook.com/kamersvol and R75 at the gate.

For more information, visit kamersvol.com.

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