House Of The Cape Robin

Frankie Pappas

LEAD ARCHITECT
Frankie Pappas

YEAR
2023

LOCATION
George, South Africa

CATEGORY
Houses

THE SITE

The site is steeply sloping facing towards the Outeniqua Mountains with street access from the highest portion of the slope.

THE BRIEF

The brief was to craft a compact home that creates privacy from the south whilst opening up to northern views.

A connected kitchen, scullery, lounge, and studio - with a dining room opening out onto a verandah - potential for a completely separate apartment to be built out in the future.

THE IDEA

Two small houses one on top of the other: a main house above and a future apartment below. Both units open up towards the northern views while sheltering from southerly winds.

Designed to sit low into the landscape so as to avoid blocking the pedestrians' views toward the Outeniqua Mountains whilst still maintaining absolute privacy for the owners.

MATERIALS

The house is built from a very simple set of materials with concrete brick bagged inside and out and off-shutter concrete floors and soffits.

Exterior doors and windows are manufactured from powder-coated aluminum whilst all furniture, ceilings, and interior doors are built from local plywood.

PROGRAM

The main floor provides outside parking space and garages towards the south.

A central dining room is flanked by a kitchen and scullery to the west and a lounge and study to the east whilst the bedrooms occupy the most northern portions of the main level. The lower ground floor is given over to a future small two-bedroom apartment.

SOLUTIONS

Two long sloping wings sit at 60 degrees to one another. This configuration creates a triangular space between the two wings which opens up to the view.

A bridge spans between these two wings. The bridge - and its intersections with the wings - create the public living spaces of the house while the wings accommodate the bedrooms and bathrooms towards the north and the garages towards the south.

CLIENTS

The clients are a retired couple whose children and grandchildren come for extended stays.

They are avid environmentalists and nature lovers who wish to demonstrate how one can live very comfortably in a 70-odd sqm home with a very low impact on its environment.

A HUMAN STORY

Oom Phil has made coffee for Tannie Susan every morning since they've been married and every morning they sit with their coffee and chat about the day ahead.

Susan with her back against the headboard and Phil next to her on a chair. We designed a seat into the 4500 mm-high bedroom window so Phil and Susan could carry on their lifelong tradition but now with a magical morning view.

HOW IS THE BUILDING UNIQUE?

The building is designed to sit low in the landscape in comparison to the street. This allows people walking along the street to have wonderful views of the nature reserve without their sightlines being disrupted by a building.

SUSTAINABILITY

An indigenously planted landscape requires minimal maintenance and no additional water usage.

The use of locally sourced materials dramatically reduces the embedded energy of the building. The building is naturally lit and passively ventilated resulting in a home with very low energy demands.

Rainwater is harvested from the roof and stored below ground. The building is designed to accommodate solar installations allowing for an entirely off-grid household.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

All architecture - even a modest home - can be a generous social act.