VISI’s deputy editor Annemarie Meintjes invited 10 architects to explore the concept of container architecture in a South African context. We’re publishing the results in our Thinking Inside the Box feature.
One quarter of the container used by Ellis & Associates Architects in the Waiting for Change project is buried in a rock face in the Bo-Kaap. The remainder cantilevers over the informal settlement below, perched marginally above the anticipated raised sea level caused by global warming.
Container concept
The successful design of small spaces is achieved through simplicity. The Waiting for Change container has been divided across its length into three zones: sleep, wet core and living; and across its width into three zones: utility (dress, wash, eat, audio-visual), circulation, and a “working” wall (library, kitchen, sitting/sleeping). A glass shard is wedged into the body of the container to provide light – and a view – to the interior spaces. The base of the shard is an aquarium – a “live” floor – with a lid of glass.
Company profile
Haydn Ellis & Associates is a small design practice established in 2001 to focus on high-end single residential housing, although farms, corporate interiors, restaurants and boutique residential clusters have also been taken on as projects. “I don’t like the ‘look but don’t touch’ approach one sees everywhere these days because this is like a curse to residential architecture,” explains Haydn. “Even when you are dealing with second and third homes or holiday homes, you are dealing with family dynamics and a relationship between people and places. Success is ultimately the degree to which one is able to interpret a specific brief and deliver something at once appropriate and extraordinary.”
021 422 2824, ellisassociatesarchitects.com
See more VISI articles about container architecture here.