A SENSE OF PLACE

THE UNDERSTATED FORM OF A MODERN JOHANNESBURG HOME HONOURS ITS SETTING: AN ESTABLISHED GARDEN IN THE HEART OF WESTCLIFF.

PHOTOS DOOK PRODUCTION ANNEMARIE MEINTJES WORDS MILA CREWE-BROWN

ONCE INSIDE, IT’S ALL ABOUT STREAMLINEDSURFACES ANDUNOBSTRUCTEDVIEWS– DECIDEDLY MODERN.THEY RETAINED ALL THE LARGE TREES AND ESCHEWED FLOWER BEDS FOR NEATLY CLIPPED LAWN. There’s something extra… It’s that spirit of a place,” Johan Wentzel says, trying to pinpoint the magic of Albert and Jo Anne Olivier’s Westcliff home. It is a stripped-down, refined abode with a dominant linear language that forges a connection with its immediate surrounds, and so too with the neighbourhood beyond its walls. In terms of the home’s design, the act of subtracting is paramount, even more important than what has been added, and so it was that architects Grete van As and Johan Wentzel of W Design Architecture Studio reached a place where“it really becomes irrelevant what the house itself looks like”. Johan’s comment – not something you hear…

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Visi (Digital) - 1 Issue, VISI 92

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