Art Collector's Villa in Riebeek-Kasteel, South Africa - Clients are art lovers who have accumulated a renowned collection of South African art over the years. The dream is to build a home in South Africa where they can display their artwork. Their requirements are simple: design a residential art gallery. First, it is an art gallery, and secondly, it is a home. The couple fell in love with the town itself and the thriving local arts community, the ERF is located on the main road in the village, allowing the public to enjoy the occasional collection. The design process is a balanced practice. While this space primarily needs to be a gallery, it still has to be a home. Strukt Architects must ensure that there is enough wall space to place the artwork, and that there are enough openings to enjoy the beauty and let warm natural light in, while considering the protection of the artwork.

‍
Throughout the design process, it is necessary to coordinate the needs of the gallery with the traditional concepts provided by the housing. One such example is the traditional border wall in South Africa, which is often used as a security measure. Instead, Strukt Architects suggests combining high perimeter walls with sliding screens, which can protect property and further protect and obscure living spaces from direct sunlight.
‍

The height restriction forced the architect to extend the quality underground to free up space for the second bedroom. Strukt Architects tries to control the scale by dividing the building into bottom, middle and top, and is inspired by the country architecture of the area. The base has a smooth plaster finish and for the middle section, Strukt Architects uses a plaster finish to create a dotted or textured finish known as Tyrol, which is the famous wall finish inside the town and inside and at the top of the area, while Strukt Architects exposes the concrete of the roof to the outside. A prominent feature of the buildings in the area is the use of “porches” or porches, and Strukt Architects ensures that the house has its own porches. It faces north and stands a sculpture by local artist Anton Momberg on a low base. Strukt Architects hired local landscape designers to help reduce the scale of the building by building earthen mounds and planting vegetation unique to the area.

‍

‍

Copyright Disclaimer: All articles on this site are original, copyrighted, and may not be reproduced in any form without permission (including but not limited to: media, websites, etc.) without permission. All project photos/design graphics are copyrighted by the original author. Some of the content on this site comes from public sources on the Internet or is shared by users. If it violates the legitimate interests of the original author, you can contact us for processing.