River Bend Farm

NEW FARMHOUSE FOR FRANCIS AND ALLISON BRAND

After our school reunion, Francis said that he wanted to employ me to design and build their new farmhouse along the banks of the Breede River. The predominant Karoo climate and the client preferences called for a veranda house – the veranda being an extremely efficient device for climate control.

Architecture is not designing a building and placing it on the site. The building needs to be integrated with the site so that proper relationships are formed between the external and internal areas.

The house is held by the stone retaining wall at the rear, the stone obtained from the site. The retaining structure contains the vegetable garden, with a direct pathway to the main house. The front lawn was levelled, with the irrigation canal forming the front boundary of the farmhouse precinct.

The internal spaces were arranged so that there are no passages or corridors, the rooms were designed so that they flow into one another, without hinderance to their functionality. The double volumes were created to enhance the visual connections between the spaces.

Location: Western Cape