At home in the bush ... in the city
January 3, 2006
By Lucille Davie
SOME people go into the bush to get away from it all; others build a bush house in the city, and get away from it all right at home.
Such a house exists in Westcliff, the creation of Silvio Rech Lesley Carstens Architecture and Interior Architecture, architects with an armful of awards to their names and a reputation for having designed some of Africa's top luxury lodges and camps.
The deck, with jars, benches and hand-carved bedroom door
Superficially the house resembles several rondavels, with thatched roofs, and a long multi-level deck that overlooks an acre of lush overgrown-but-controlled garden. There are several lily ponds, a wine cellar and a trampoline at the bottom of the garden.
Beneath the surface, though, is a home of unusual warmth, easy living and captivating design.
It's idyllic - it's a place were relaxation and good living go hand-in-hand but, most surprisingly, it sits comfortably in the middle of the palatial, historic homes of Westcliff.
The house consists of one large interleading structure, one part the living area, the other the sleeping area. The walls of the living area are finished in sandstone rock with built-in wooden shelves and a tree growing up into the roof between the two rooms.
The round bedroom sleeps four people, with an elevated double bed, probably two metres above ground, providing a perfect view down into the garden through a roof-to-floor double glass door.
Underneath this bed are two smaller built-in beds. The owners' children sleep here, safely tucked under their parents (who wish to remain anonymous).
Leading off the bedroom is a dressing room, which leads to a large, luxurious sunken bath overlooking the garden. A toilet is off this area. The bathroom and bedroom are heated by means of fireplaces and the walls are finished in rich brown mud.
The kitchen is a separate building, with just the basics: a large designer metal sink, a counter and chopping block, several cupboards, a metallic-finish washing machine, stove and fridge, and an incongruous eland trophy sticking off the wall, as if it's the most natural thing in the world.
The roof is vaulted, and finished in brick, looking down on a concrete floor.
Textured finishes
But it's the textured finishes that leave one slightly breathless when walking through this home. The mix of sandstone and rough ochre walls holds a wooden canoe hanging from the roof, hand-crafted tables, chairs and door frames, a cow hide rug, crafted copper wire lights, decorative skulls collected in the bush, strips of white pebbles on the floor, all mixed with traditional wing-back chairs and wardrobes.
And around every other corner, or atop gate posts, are large, distinctive Balinese temple birds, giving the home an intriguing Asian touch, in happy harmony with the African elements.
It's all a matter of blending the materials with the placing of the building and its surroundings, Rech says.
"The materials become the buildings," he explains, giving as an example chairs that are made of logs, or boulders that are like chairs. "You can sit on the boulder or the chair."
This means that a building has "ambiguity", and although the structure looks very natural and at one with its surrounds, it has been carefully thought out.
"It blends with nature and they grow out of each other, but that link with nature takes a long time," Rech says.
Living on site
The two architects get this right in their designs usually by living on site - they lived in Tanzania while designing and building the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge.
Built on the edge of the crater, a world heritage site, they created a combination of a Maasai village and Parisian luxury. Maasai warriors accompany guests to their rooms, described in The Hotel Book - Great Escapes Africa as a lodge of "great wilderness and luxury".
They did the same for the creation of North Island in the Seychelles, described on the British website Seychelles Travel as a "unique Robinson Crusoe barefoot luxury paradise".
North Island, like their other creations, has scooped several awards: Tatler's Best New Sensation in 2004; the London Sunday Times' Best Island Style for 2004, and BBC Travel's 2004 No 1 Eco-Destination Worldwide award.
They have duplicated their unique style of luxury African bush lodges in other parts of Tanzania, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. In addition, the architects are building a lodge in Portugal and are considering one in Greece.
"We get a call every day from a different country," Rech says.
He "wonders around with ideas all the time, then finds a site for them". At present the partners are working on a home in Plettenberg Bay, with several other projects on the drawing board.
Thinking and planning
But don't get the idea that it comes easy. It's a style that has been brewing and developing over the last dozen years. "It looks lashed together, but an excessive amount of thinking and planning goes into it," Rech explains.
And often what that involves is imbibing the local culture and incorporating elements of it into the design. Local craftspeople are brought into the project, producing items for the lodges, and enhancing their skills at the same time.
Some of these craftspeople were brought to Joburg to sculpt the doors for the Westcliff house.
Rech and Carstens now design everything, from the soft furnishings to the door handles and latches - but always with a sense of Africa and its rich textures and tones.
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