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House Harwin: Sans Souci
Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal
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Click to view map Coordinates: | Declared a National Monument in 1982, now a Provincial Heritage Resource (SAHRIS).
Villa Sans Souci was built for the businessman John Harwin in the 1880s. He commissioned a German-born architect, Albert Halder who had come to the Natal colony in about 1881, to design the house. The entrance portico and pediments are German neo-classical and compare with the fashionable German buildings which were illustrated in the architectural magazines of the period, with additional Victorian features such as the decorative cast iron-work of the verandahs. No expense was spared. Albert Halder employed craftsmen from Italy and France to do the building. The house covers 1 000 square metres, and the main passage was designed wide enough to drive an ox-wagon down it! The verandah, which surrounds the house, ensures that there is always one part of it sunny enough or cool enough to use. Intricate cast-iron railings were imported from Scotland, and pressed steel ceilings and stained-glass windows of the finest quality were installed. Originally, all the water for the house was rolled in barrels from the uMsunduzi River several kilometres away, but when this became ''too impure for human consumption'' he and a neighbour laid cast-iron pipes from the Dorpspruit. The house took four years to build and was completed in 1884. [Richard Clacey (grandson) The future meets the past in historical house, Villa Sans Souci Natal Witness 2012 11 14].
The residence was used as a location for the feature film Zulu Dawn in 1978 (See The Heritage Portal). Restoration, at a cost of R13,7m, was done by ISMAIL CASSIMJEE ARCHITECTS (ICA Architects and Urban Designers) and executed by the contracting firm Siyazama CVK-SIYAZA CONSTRUCTION in the 2000s and completed in 2010. [Note: For photo-album see KZN: A Photographic and Historical Record] References:
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