House East London

Location: East London, Eastern Cape

Type: Residential

Date: Project Completed in 2019

Featured in: SA Home Owners Magazine (Jul 2023 Edition)

Project Description:

The house sits on a unique sloped site on the Nahoon River in the private NAHOON RIVER ESTATE designed for an affluent couple with two small children. The topography of the site is a steep slope falling 7.5 m over the length of the site from north to south toward the river. The Client’s brief required a large modern and transparent house on several levels that nestles into the site to give maximum useable outdoor space and that takes full advantage of the views to the south and east.

Site analysis gave rise to the form of the house by means of the shape of the site and the slope to determine the appropriate levels for the various storeys. This analysis provided the concept design which was immediately accepted by the Client to move onto more detailed design that never changed to completion. The multifaceted forms of the house were conceived from creating positive and negative spaces to provide the best interaction of the indoor and outdoor spaces as well as visually connecting the living spaces. The lower ground storey has the main entrance foyer with lift, four car garage, plant room, underground water tank and home theatre. The ground storey is the main living level and houses the lounge, dining, kitchen / scullery area, the bar, games room, study, two en-suite guest bedrooms, pool with deck and the outdoor entertainment area. Moving up to the second storey one finds the private zone of the house with master bedroom suite, two children’s bedrooms with a shared bathroom, pyjama lounge leading out to the roof terrace with jacuzzi and roof garden.

The materials vary from heavy stonework to lightweight steel framing to emphasise the different facets of the house. Large windows allow an abundance of natural light into all areas of the house, some openings were projected to provide shading from the sun and to focus on key views. The roofs are mono pitch roofs that are strategically sloped to maximise on the limited north light available due to the steep slope of the hill up on the north side of the property.

Many of the features of the house are a response the passive design approach adopted to incorporate shading into the structural elements where outdoor patios cantilever out to cover the large, glazed areas negating the need for additional shading devices. The design objective was to provide a very liveable house that becomes part of the site and makes a statement with clean lines and articulation of the key facets by means of colour or material changes