Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

Fynbos House
Betty's Bay, Western Cape

SARAH CALBURN ARCHITECTS (GAUTENG) CC: Architect

Date:2008
Client:Rapidough Properties CC
Type:Homestead
Style:Contemporary
Status:Extant
2008SAIA Award of Merit

Award of Merit Citation

This house, buried in the fynbos between the mountains and the sea, exemplifies a fulfilling a design philosophy, namely to create new relationships between architecture and landscape. It is like a poem which mediates between humankind and earth and seems to make less violent our invasion of the land to create shelter.

Two powerful concrete ramps, carpeted with indigenous planting, rise out of the landscape at the angle of natural repose of soil to form the upper floor slabs. These support two glass pavilions that punctuate and dance above the dense green fynbos, whereas the ground floor, partially buried under the ramps, is subsumed in and engages with the fynbos world, yet simultaneously drenched with light. The layout here is clear and the spaces are handsome. The lasting impression is of walls, slabs and glass planes that are meritoriously become more than space-making devices.


Books that reference Fynbos House

Joubert, 'Ora (Ed). 2009. 10 years + 100 buildings : Architecture in a Democratic South Africa. Cape Town: Bell-Roberts Publishing. pg 348-351
South African Institute of Architects. 2008. Awards : South African Institute of Architects. Awards for Excellence, Awards of Merit, Regional Awards for Architecture 2005/2006 2007/2008. Cape Town: Picasso for SAIA. pg 54-55