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Top Billing visits an award winning home in the Wilderness
Top Billing visits an award winning home in the Wilderness
A magnificent seafront facing home in Wilderness, an escape for a French family who fell in love with the view and decided to build a dream home from the ground up. Here they can take in the waves whether they're waking up, taking a shower or sitting in the lounge with friends.
The couple who built here on the Kaaiman’s River Pass, did so after visiting South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. In Paris, they feel the need to get dressed up just to go to the shops for milk so this barefoot, beachside town was the ideal escape.
Eddie may have grown up in Johannesburg but the Garden Route is where he set up his practice, twenty five years ago. This kite-surfing architect knows the wind, light and sea conditions better than most and his design factors in all the elements.
For European homeowners unused to extreme heat, this holiday town on the Touws River Lagoon is perfect. The mercury rarely rises above twenty eight degrees and as Parisians, the family appreciate any place that doesn’t dip below ten degrees in the Winter. They are going to be taking long holidays here.
The family chose not to have a traditional interior designer, preferring to buy pieces from Eddie’s shop in George, source art locally and to support the vibrant South African design industry.
The light tone of the woodwork suggests a continuation of the beach outside. Honest in its design and sophisticated in its finishes, it offers a level of barefoot luxury which the couple’s many visiting golf friends just can’t get enough of.
There is a downstairs apartment for young adults and upstairs is a haven for parents. The Peter Pharoah painting incorporates the greens and blues of the sea and has become a feature of the home. The idea of the decks of an ocean-liner extends to this gallery walkway which opens to a sweeping view of the Afromontane forest on the one side and the ocean on the other. As for accommodation, there’s room for everyone.
The Astroturf on the sea facing balconies to the South, echoes the natural garden to the North.
This all South African theme and design has made headlines far beyond our borders. Every two years, in the Italian town of Bologna, they host The Quinquennial Tile Award and Steven Joubert is its latest recipient.
Wrapped by its L-shaped pool, this locally inspired design beat out entries from Italy, Greece and the U.K. to take African interiors and architecture to markets across Europe. Add the indigenous garden, this free-living atmosphere and little wonder the house has made headlines.
A world-beating, contemporary design which blends with the scenery and lets the soul of the Wilderness breeze through it. This beach house has it all!
It always makes me proud when those living far away decide to make our beautiful country their second home, and with views like that/this it's easy to understand why.