Backyard Cafe / Steyn Studio + Meyer & Associates Architects + Sq. One Panorama Architects
+ 30
Textual content description supplied by the architects. A inventive collaboration between London-based architects Steyn Studio and Sq. One Panorama Architects’ South African workplace has resulted within the easy fusion between structure and panorama, with gardens that wrap over new buildings, which in flip are woven again into the panorama with intricate trellis constructions. It’s a refined celebration of the Breedekloof Valley in South Africa’s Western Cape area’s wealthy cultural historical past and attracts its inspiration from the San who first inhabited the valley and who had been later joined by early Dutch settlers.
The shopper’s temporary referred to as for the brand new growth, which included gardens, a small restaurant/café referred to as ‘Die Spens’ (The Pantry) and present store (‘Winkel’), on the Bosjes Property to be related and contextual, offering an inviting and provoking journey between the 2 key sights on the property: the well-known Bosjes chapel and the manor home, while not interfering with the visible dialogue between the 2.
The brand new backyard is a conceptual microcosm of the broader panorama, referencing the regional context of the agricultural Breedekloof Valley. The brand new didactic gardens, due to this fact, domesticate the land with enchanting playscapes that encourage youngsters and adults to have interaction with the pure world, and the buildings nestled inside it. Numerous ecologies had been created by integrating wetlands and pure water therapy methods with forest habitats and rehabilitated indigenous vegetation.
The general design respectfully acknowledges the presence of the historic manor home and chapel on the property and visually enhances the beforehand established relationship between the 2, in addition to the encompassing vineyards and mountain backdrops, balancing its composition with new planting and the creation of a collection of processional routes. The landscaping and buildings had been fastidiously designed in order to not compete with the prevailing architectural options of the property. It has a low visible profile with tree planting reinforcing the prevailing visible axis and panorama options resembling tree windbreaks stitching it again into the encompassing rural panorama.
With the intention to conceal roughly 750m2 of constructing, it was determined early on to have two separate buildings, which additionally provides to the customer expertise. Steyn Studio labored carefully with Sq. One to not solely place the constructed constructions within the panorama as curiosities but in addition as anchors round which the panorama was then designed. The seamless integration of the landscaping parts with the constructed constructions was an important design goal from the beginning of the mission. The landscaped gardens are unfold throughout three sloping terraces, related by a curving pathway that gives common entry. Each buildings are partially constructed into the slope, the roofs overlaid with soil and planted with indigenous grasses and succulents to mix seamlessly into the panorama, leaving the panoramic mountain views untouched.
The easy architectural types of the buildings had been impressed by the huts of the San referred to as a ‘Matjieshuis’ (Mat Home) in addition to the primary dwellings of the Dutch settlers, referred to as ‘KapHuis’ (Truss Home), which was apparently influenced by the San. The Kaphuis might due to this fact have been a hybrid of kinds between these two cultures. The Matjieshuis was a transportable, curved, slat-framed construction lined with woven mats, utilized by San herders as they migrated seasonally with their cattle throughout pre-colonial and early colonial occasions. The KapHuis was a collection of A-frame trusses lined with thatch, with the inside lowered to permit for extra headroom. Each constructions had been a part of this historic panorama and blended subtly with their environment. The mounds of the brand new constructions have an uncanny resemblance to the close by surrounding hills.
Intricately curved oak trellis constructions, a refined homage to the San huts, function a visible focus that guides guests inwards after which twists to create the enclosures of the café/restaurant and present store that are then ‘carpeted’ over with the brand new gardens. Over time, these in depth trellises will probably be additional built-in into the backyard; overgrown with greater than a dozen species of climbing crops. The expressed conical front-of-house areas are partly sunken to scale back their scale influence, with the purposeful back-of-house areas fully underground. With the intention to enable the trellis sample to look constantly weaved between the inside and exterior, the glazing imitates its sample, leading to a zig-zag association that assists the tall vertical structural span of the glass.
The fabric pallet was saved easy. The underground constructing parts fronting the mountain backdrop had been completed in uncooked cementitious finishes. The skinny concrete shell vaulted constructions are painted white, referencing the best way conventional whitewashed Cape Dutch homesteads dot the panorama, in addition to the close by chapel, with the ground and walkways completed with gray terrazzo. After in depth analysis carried out by Arup, oak was thought of to be one of the best timber for the trellis when it comes to its sturdiness and bendability.
