Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		House Martienssen - Greenside House Greenside, Johannesburg, Gauteng Rex Distin MARTIENSSEN: Architect

Date: 1939 Client: Self Type: Homestead Status: Extant Street: 53 Cruden Bay Rd   Click to view map Coordinates: 26°08'40.22" S 28°00'42.92" E Alt: 1597m

MARTIENSSEN’s own house in Greenside is a seminal work which has become a symbol and exemplar of the shifts and changes of the introduction and adaptation of the modern movement in South Africa. Early drawings of the house show the clear influences of Le Corbusier and the compositional influences of Leger. The final design, in its first version, is still in that idiom. The house as built, however, retains the spatial and volumetric relationships but there are significant deviations - a rich surface modulation and variety of materials, framing of the facade and its articulation as a two-dimensional surface - which all contribute to an almost classical repose. The references are many: Renaissance frontality, Terragni (with whom MARTIENSSEN was corresponding at the time), Kandinsky, Hilion, Nicholson and Leger. (Ivor Prinsloo in UIA, 1985: 59) Transcription of Blue Plaque: JOHANNESBURG CULTURAL LEGACY HOUSE MARTIENSSEN 53 Cruden Bay Road, Greenside was designed by Rex Distin Martienssen as his own residence. The house was completed in 1939 and is regarded as a seminal work of the Transvaal Group which spearheaded the introduction and adaptation of the modern movement in South Africa. The house shows strong influences of Le Corbusier. It is a simple and elegant design that utilises local materials effectively. Books that reference House Martienssen - Greenside House Beck, Haig (Editor). 1985. UIA International Architect : Southern Africa (Issue 8). London: International Architect. pg 59 Herbert, Gilbert. 1975. Martienssen & the international style: The modern movement in South African architecture. Cape Town - Rotterdam: AA Balkema. pg 179, 218-225