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Click to view map Coordinates: | Die Kraal is a collection of thatched stone cottages arranged organically around courts creating a walled labyrinthine arrangement of spaces connecting habitable rooms, built by Henk Pierneef over a period of time. Brief history of the site and structure Elangeni, as JH (Henk) Pierneef 1986-1957) named his home, is a Zulu word meaning A place in the sun. The property was a portion of the farm ‘Mopanie’ owned by GJ Maritz.1 Pierneef took transfer of the land in 1939 and spent the rest of his years there with his second wife Marian Francis Schoep, whom he had married in 1923. She died there in 1969 and the place sold from her estate in that same year to the husband and wife architects Wynand SMIT and his wife Eleanor. In the time he lived there Pierneef set about developing the grounds in a fashion that satisfied his artistic sensibilities. The northern slope of the hill Lukasrand was left in a pristine natural state although provided the stone needed for the various structures and landscape features. On the property was remnant stonework of the Ndebele who grazed their cattle in the surrounding valleys and these formed the basis for what Pierneef called Die Kraal (The Corral). He himself undertook much of the building, an art he had probably learned from his father, Gerrit Leendert PIERNEEF, a Dutch builder.2 He was ably assisted by one ‘Oubaas’ Stapelberg, known for his fine stonemasonry work. The stone was collected from the koppie behind, Lukasrand, and the timbers derived from poplar trees (Populus deltoides) the traditional source for pioneer vernacular timber. Thatching grass (Hyparrhenia hirta) would have been harvested directly from the surrounding veld, once open grassland. The process of building was over an extended period of time and somewhat ad-hoc, adding to the sense of organic growth. The deliberate planting of indigenous trees within the confines of the house and extending of planting beds with stone terracing is integral to its design and linking to the landscape. He had the sculptor Coert Steynberg carve the large timber entrance door (extant though slightly damaged in an attempt to steal it when the house was vacant) to the Gatehouse of the courtyard complex.3 When the Smits bought the property in 1969 it was their ambition to restore the garden scheme of Pierneef. To this end they documented the grounds and buildings and planting scheme in that year. They were instrumental in having ‘Die Kraal’ declared a National Monument in 1975.4 At the same time the Old Pretoria Society placed a Blue Plaque at the Gate House to commemorate it as the place where Pierneef ‘lived and worked’. The place was documented again in 1986, and yet again in 1996 with view to development schemes and subdivision of the land for sale. The surrounding land was hence reduced and the entrance relocated to the east.5 In the years of the 1980s the place served as a student commune, chiefly architectural students. In 2002 the students of the landscape architecture programme, University of Pretoria again documented the plants and landscape. In 2005 the property was registered in the name of ‘Elangeni ondernemings’, an enterprise that went bankrupt, and the place sold at auction to the current owners in 2013. SMIT and FISHER with the assistance of students in the Honours year of the Architecture and Landscape architecture programme at the University of Pretoria did a thorough and accurate survey and documentation. Referred sources: |
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