Presenting at the country’s Southern Guild, her 12 massive and unique sculptures are collectively titled “iLobola,” the name for traditional South African marital negotiations between families to pay for a bride. Up until recently, that payment most commonly came in the form of cows, as represented in Poswa’s art by the horns attached to each piece.

“I knew I wanted to tell a story about ilobola,” says Poswa, who often draws on her Xhosa heritage in her work. “Because I was clueless, I needed to know how the whole process works, especially because this is something that would be a part of my life; if I’m not the one for whom lobola will be paid, then it will be for my daughter, or if [I have a son], he is the one that will pay lobola. So, somewhere, somehow, I will be involved; It’s part of who I am, it’s my culture.”

In the commercial economy of South Africa today, cows are no longer the main source of income for most tribe members, so cash is frequently exchanged instead as bride-wealth. And though some may raise criticism that the lobola custom treats women like a commodity, Poswa unapologetically defends it for its unifying abilities. Its purpose, she says, is “ukwakhiwa kobuhlobo,” or the building of relations between the two families.

“During the negotiation process, the families really get to know each other. They talk about what bonds the couple together and even identify potential pitfalls to the marriage. When the couple faces problems down the line, they have this safety net to turn to. I think it’s a really beautiful structure that brings stability,” she explains.

The statues are all roughly six feet tall and feature bright colors and patterns, along with individually shaped bases that hint at various human and animal forms. Constructed from hand-coiled clay and combined with cast bronze, the collection is just the latest in the Cape Town native’s career spent honoring her culture. One of her earlier anthologies, “Umthwalo,” paid tribute to the traditional women tasks of “gathering wood, collecting water, and taking bucket loads of clothing to the river for washing.” Another series, “Magodi,” looked at the sculptural forms of traditional African hairstyles. And of course, her “Ukukhula” pieces, themselves an examination of conventional male and female roles, were acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in 2019.

“There are many things you can call me,” Poswa notes. “I’m an artist, a businesswoman, a breadwinner, I am a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a survivor. My inspiration comes from my culture, and from the path I walked as a woman. I am the woman I am because of my heritage. I stand in tribute to the other women who have shared the load…I celebrate my heritage, and I forge my own way: my work is an act of intention, and this is what must be known about African women.”

Born in 1979, the artist studied surface deign at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology before opening the Imisa Ceramics studio with fellow ceramicist Andile Dyalvane in 2006.

Of her artistic process, Poswa explains that “working with clay is like a dance, it will follow if you lead it. But once it goes in the kiln, anything can happen. It’s like a grown-up child: you have to let go.”

More photos of “iLobola” and Poswa’s other work are available on her Instagram page @zizipo_poswa.

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Architecture firm Frankie Pappas envisioned the home as a way to marry the cliffs and the forest of the picturesque site, located in a nature reserve in the Waterberg Mountains of South Africa. In this way, it’s both literally and metaphorically a bridge, and it’s designed to offer shelter not just to its human inhabitants, but also to the local plants and animals.

The architects wanted to slot the home carefully into the building site with minimal disturbance. Most architectural projects with this goal choose to go with lightweight materials and post-style foundations, resulting in both a contemporary appearance and a sense that the building isn’t permanent. Brick, in contrast, has a weightiness and solidity that creates the opposite effect. It feels strongly rooted to the site, and almost impossible to extricate.

As you can see more clearly in architectural drawings, the unusual asymmetrical layout of the home, with its arm-like appendages, is completely informed by the landscape. Not a single tree was removed to accommodate it, resulting in what the architects call “funky bulges and protrusions in the plan of the building.” If the home stood alone in a field, with nothing to obscure it, its shape would look very odd, but here, it just enhances the sense that it contains secrets waiting to be uncovered.

“The shapes of the additions to the central building are dictated by the position and size of the surrounding trees,” they say. “The building makes use of a very simple set of materials which all play their part in making the building part of its landscape. The most abundant material is a rough stock brick which was selected to match the site’s weathered sandstone. The ‘bridge’ portions of the building are constructed from sustainably-grown timbers, whilst glass and aluminum fill in the non-structural wall.”

“The first floor offers to its inhabitants a planted courtyard, a reclusive lounge, a sunlit dining room, a farmhouse kitchen and scullery, a tree-shaded deck, a small pool, and a fireplace — around which most of the cooking and living occurs. The ground floor provide yet more courtyards, a study, library, and a small swing bench under the arch. The cellar creates a climate conducive to curing meats, storing food supplies, and aging wines.”

Refreshingly unique in a time when a lot of architecture looks alike, “House of the Big Arch” illustrates Frankie Pappas’ belief that architecture, landscape, and garden should function as one, incapable of being divided.

And if you’re wondering who Frankie Pappas is, exactly, that question has a similar answer, because there’s actually no one architect with that name. It’s a fictional persona and collective pseudonym chosen by architects who work in collaboration with coders, engineers, artists, and mathematicians to come up with “remarkable solutions to fascinating problems.”

The post This Romantic Brick Home Offers a Bridge Between Forest and Cliffs first appeared on Dornob.

Striking and evocative, tables that blend wooden elements with a blue-tinted resin make you feel like you’re gazing at the sea. With the pale wood tones standing in for sand and seaside rocks, the resin appears lighter when it’s poured in a shallow layer and darker as it gets thicker for a realistic watery effect.

Design firm Shift Perspective takes a unique approach to this technique. Slices of shaped plywood are stacked on top of each other to form the topography of a specific place that’s highly relevant to the history of the studio’s home, South Africa. Called “Robben Island” after the land mass it depicts, the coffee table aims to give us an idea of just how remote and isolated the famous prison where Nelson Mandela was held really is.

The company explains: “The island itself is secluded from the mainland and served as a medium and maximum security facility during the Apartheid regime. Political prisoners of Apartheid were held here until the facility closed in 1991. After his release, Nelson Mandela went on to become the first president of the Republic of South Africa and remains an iconic revolutionist to this day. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years imprisonment in the Robben Island prison. That’s why we’re only producing 18 tables to commemorate each year that Mandela spent on Robben Island.”

The table creates a sculptural map of Robben Island and the sea floor around it, with engravings on the little wooden “island” marking the location of the prison and other landmarks. It might be hard to discern the scale of the island if not for a cool addition: three tiny sterling silver ships, which can be moved around on the surface. When a light shines onto the table from overhead, the ships cast a deep shadow in the “water.”

Based in Cape Town, Shift Perspective was born when founder Ollie de Wit started designing and making his own furniture as a hobby in 2013. Indeed, Ollie takes an experimental approach that usually pays off. While he often collaborates with expert craftspeople to manufacture his designs, sometimes it’s hard to find people who know exactly how to bring his vision to life.

In the case of the Robben Island Table, Ollie realized he’d have to take on the production of the table himself, despite the fact that he’d never worked with resin before.

“This can be a daunting task, as we have to learn something we know nothing about with hours of researching followed by hours of trial and error. We partnered with professionals every step we could, but could not find any professionals that could cast resin onto wood. We took this part of the manufacturing process onto ourselves, which took two and a half years of trial and error.”

With an end result this beautiful, it’s safe to say that effort was definitely worthwhile.

Loving the look of this aquatic resin and wood table? Check out “Lagoon 55,” a beautiful custom piece by designer Alexandre Chapelin of La Table, in which textural sand-colored marble dotted with natural pits and holes mimics the look of a real coastline.

The post Resin Coffee Table Offers a Map of South Africa’s Robben Island first appeared on Dornob.

If we took a closer look at South Africa’s largest city, we would see that the appeal of its modern houses is rooted in a longing for openness and connection to the outdoors.

In 2012, SAOTA, one of the nation’s leading local firms, completed two modern houses on a large family compound in Johannesburg. Driving up to the compound, the two-story homes give off a suave appearance that makes them look more like training facilities for an elite sports team than they do residential units. Light from the interiors shines out through rectangular apertures that at first glance seem more designed for privacy than illumination.

Once inside, guests are greeted by marble floors and a resplendent white spiral staircase. The space doubles in height just beyond that staircase, with a clear view of a linear swimming pool and sprawling yard in the background. This sleekness continues on the second-story offices, blending seamlessly with soft surfaces in the bedrooms for added comfort.

In another part of the city, MMA Design Studio erected an ultramodern residence on Westwold Way — this one for two separate families who decided to live together. Subsequently, this “house” is actually comprised of two houses that share a kitchen and central grass courtyard.

The staggered topography of the site means that one home looks down on the other. The garage is on the ground level, with stairs taking residents up to the main floor where both homes are connected. There are also stairs at the side to bring residents directly to the courtyard and further back by the pool to bypass the interiors altogether. When the sliding doors are open on each house, they begin to feel like a single large space. Horizontal and vertical ribbon windows maximize the presence of indoor sunlight throughout the day.

House 03 by Daffonchio Architects is a home that uses raw concrete on its exterior to signal strength, despite the fact that its interiors radiate total warmth. The main door is 12 feet high and made of raw mild steel, but the space opens upwards pretty quickly as residents enter the 23-foot entrance hall. Like the other projects featured in this article, the connection between the interior and exterior here is impossible to miss. Large sliding doors make the courtyard feel like part of the house, and part of the second story hangs supported above an L-shaped patio. On that story, sliding floor-to-ceiling timber shutters open up to let sunlight in and close to provide privacy.

Each of these homes represents a side of Johannesburg few would ever consider — one where modern architecture can be designed to blend into the local area. South Africa is an expansive country, and these houses take advantage of it by sprawling out across their plots. The desire to live close to the land fuels the demand for open spaces where the built environment communions with the great outdoors.

The post The Expansive Comforts of Johannesburg’s Modern Homes first appeared on Dornob.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu received a special surprise on his 86th birthday: a monumental arch honoring his diligent efforts in successfully ending South African apartheid and implementing a democratic constitution.

Joint Designers

Snøhetta, a world-renowned architectural design practice, and Local Studio, an architecture and urban design firm that specializes in creating strong public focal points, worked together to create the memorial structure.

Behind the Design

When Archbishop Tutu was indefatigably fighting for democracy in the late 70s and early 80s, his ardent followers lovingly nicknamed him “The Arch.” In light of that moniker, the memorial has been named “Arch for Arch.”

The structure is made from 14 arched pillars (which themselves are comprised of entwined lengths of bent larch wood), symbolizing the 14 chapters of the South African Constitution, an historical document that was instrumental in the struggle that eventually brought apartheid to an end. A keystone supports these pillars to maintain their integrity and solidity, just as the Constitution serves as the bedrock for South Africa’s free will and sovereignty.

The arch is nearly 30 feet tall, with its spherical form bringing to mind images of a globe. The larch wood is tough, waterproof, and durable, and it’s also expected to develop an appealing finish over time. Minimalist concrete benches surround the base of the arch. The designers explain, “We felt it was important to move away from the conventions that are associated with the design of traditional monuments by using warmer, tactile materials like wood, which invite people to engage directly with the piece.”

The Unveiling

The prototype design of the arch was initially unveiled during the 2017 Design Indaba conference, an annual event held in Cape Town, South Africa by founder Ravi Naidoo. At the three-day event, Tutu took the stage to rejoice and dance as a 48-member choir encircled a model of the arch and sang a celebratory chorus to honor the archbishop and his accomplishments.

“The moment was unforgettable, and there was not a dry eye in the audience,” the designers shared in a recent interview. “The archbishop danced to the accompanying choral ensemble, and the audience all connected in moment of unity, fulfillment, encouragement, and energy.”

The completed project was presented to Tutu on his birthday a few months later, on October 7, 2017. The monument is conveniently located between St George’s Cathedral and the national parliament, a spot where Tutu himself spot often spoke during anti-apartheid protests. “Arch for Arch” continued to be a crowd favorite at the 2018 installment of the Design Indaba conference.

The prototype model of the memorial has found a permanent home on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The intention was to build a link between that institution, South Africa’s highest judicial court, and the national parliament.

Designers from Snøhetta and Local Studio clarify: “The Arch for Arch is more than a monument for Archbishop Tutu. It builds on the legacy of South Africa’s foremost campaigner for democracy to create a platform for public participation in upholding the constitution. The arch will stand as a permanent tribute to what was sacrificed in the pursuit of democracy, and the vital necessity of protecting these rights for generations to come.”

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Most commonly associated with sports, leather furniture, pool tables, and refrigerators dedicated exclusively to beer, man caves are seen as places where men can relax and be themselves. In the popular imagination, these spaces are ugly, gleefully disheveled, and probably smell a little funky. But some proponents of the man cave argue that they can be just as thoughtfully designed as any other interior space — all it takes is the incorporation of a few decidedly “masculine” features and aesthetic sensibilities.

This spacious lounge by Inhouse Brand Architects in Cape Town, South Africa is one example of a refined take on the man cave trope. Measuring just over 2,000 square feet in size, it occupies a previously underutilized segment of a luxurious residence, providing a new “industrial-inspired dream pad” for the family’s teenage son and his friends. The designers tailored the space to his interests, which include skating, surfing, playing pool, and watching television.

In fact, a private indoor skate bowl serves as the crown jewel of this teen lounge, taking up an entire room. Getting it into place was no easy feat — the designers originally envisioned the bowl as a stepped-down recess, but as it turned out, the structure couldn’t support the weight of its framework. Instead, they removed an entire floor of the home and replaced it with timber fins, flexible plywood, and polystyrene supports.

“To embellish this remarkable feature, emerging South African street artist Jack Fox applied his signature illustrations to the walls surrounding the bowl,” say the architects. “The celebrated artist worked without a set design and completed the impromptu artwork in a twelve-hour, nonstop operation.”

“Another striking design feature comes in the form of a grandiose, curved timber wave that cascades from the ceiling down to the floor to create an extraordinary zone for watching movies. This ‘wave’ is crafted out of steel fins that are clad in timber and lit up with three LED strips. It is kitted out with surround sound to produce a genuine movie theater experience.”

A skateboard rack beside the bowl shows off the teenage resident’s most prized possessions and allows them to double as art. The space is primarily black and white and full of stark contrasts, with a concrete ceiling setting off the rugged materiality of the skate bowl area beneath it. It’s a retreat that’s sure to make many a teen boy envious, but let’s be real: plenty of teen girls (and adults of all genders, for that matter) wouldn’t mind having a space like this to call their own.

The post Teen Boy’s Dream: Modern House With a Skate Bowl first appeared on Dornob.

The impressive, bulbous glazed facades of the Silo Hotel occupy the former grain silo’s top floor, below which the museum sits. The original building was formed of 42 tightly-compacted cylindrical silos, and the new museum is spread out over 9,500 square meters, including 6,000 square meters of exhibition space over nine floors and 80 interwoven galleries, a rooftop sculpture garden, a bookshop, art storage facilities, restaurants, and reading rooms. Aside from the exhibition spaces and ancillary facilities, Zeizt MOCAA also provides Cape Town with a costume institute and centers for photography, moving images, performance art, and art education.

Heatherwick Studio’s ambitious concept for the museum has been realized with an astonishing level of care and integrity. Discussions with the museum’s curator made it clear that the building’s existing structure wouldn’t have been able to house exhibition spaces because its chambers were too small and circular in shape. Still, it was a major part of the concept that these silos would not only be preserved, but that they would also become one of the museum’s major features. Heatherwick himself has even called them the “heart” of the project.

This central idea is best seen in the museum’s atrium, which now essentially carves away massive swathes of the silos to reveal their internal structures. The result is what Heatherwick describes as a “vaulted cathedral,” but it’s unlike any other cathedral anyone has seen before. The effect of exposing the silos is almost like that of abstract sculpture: the shape of the former structures can be read easily enough, but the volumes are utterly unlike anything they were in their previous lives, having been scooped out at unusual angles to create elliptical voids with strangely amoebic properties, at once solid and fluid. The frames left from the cuts boast a double skin of polished concrete and rough aggregate, a lovely contrast in this imposing 27-meter-high space.

The project is estimated to have cost around $40 million and has taken about four years to complete since its announcement in November 2013. The V&A Waterfront is one of Cape Town’s main tourist attractions, with visitors coming to admire its unique collection of buildings and idyllic setting, which sees the iconic Table Mountain in the background while the ocean stretches out in front of it. The entire dockside complex will no doubt become an icon in its own time, and the new museum has a certain utopian quality to it, something that’s sure to stun and inspire visitors for years to come.

The post Eagerly-Awaited Heatherwick Gallery Opens in Cape Town first appeared on Dornob.

The treehouse’s elevated design recalls the complex arrangements of play structures found in backyards and playgrounds and gives it an air of youth and innocence. The clients commissioned the architects, who had previously worked on some of the neighboring buildings, to capture the feeling of a children’s secret treehouse in an elegant and contemporary way. Ultimately, they created a serene, cabin-like getaway.

Paarman Treehouse bears three especially striking features: its unconventional shape, its operable glass panels, which can open to expose the entire interior to the outdoors, and its focus on the kind of craftsmanship you’d expect to see in analog toys and industrial furniture. The home is four stories high and contains a lot of space that opens all the way up to the ceiling, creating a cathedral-like atmosphere that could make anyone forget the house only had a single bedroom.

A rusted steel ramp leads up to the home’s entrance and into the living room, where visitors are immediately greeted by a set of massive floor-to-ceiling windows. Upstairs, the lofted bedroom boasts a sleek glass railing to allow residents the fullest possible views of the surrounding countryside. A lot of the Paarman Treehouse’s warmth and character comes from its incorporation of western red cedar. In terms of layout, the treehouse consists of four modular cylinders arranged around a central square shape.

“The organizational diagram of the structure explores the pure geometry of a square, with each side divided into three modules and where two of these modules determine the diameter of a circle on each of the four sides of the square – resulting in a pin-wheel plan layout,” explain the architects, “A square is directional and a circle is not – the square relates to the North/South site geometry and the four circles to the organic and natural surroundings. Each circle’s center is the location for a column, and circular rings, supporting the floor beams above, are connected to the columns by means of branch-like arms. Each ring circumscribes a half-round space ancillary to the main square living space on that level.”

Inside, the top of each cylinder has been adorned with a steel circle that intersects the home’s wooden beams for a beautiful geometric effect. The treehouse’s layout also resulted in the creation of a few half-round bays, which respectively contain a patio, dining alcove, and staircase on the first level and a bathroom and bedroom on the second. The cylindrical theme continues all the way up to a spacious rooftop deck, which was designed to reach the height of the surrounding treetops at its highest point.

The post Unusual Modern Treehouse Looks Like a Cathedral in the Woods first appeared on Dornob.

A unique new hotel called The Silo has recently opened in Cape Town. Conceived of by visionary designer Thomas Heatherwick and his team at Heatherwick Studio, this luxury hotel used to be a historic grain silo on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. The silo, which was built in 1924 and spent the better part of the century as a key player in the Table Bay harbor trade system, was earmarked for redevelopment in 2013 when Heatherwick was commissioned to reimagine the industrial building as “a not for profit cultural institution housing the most significant collection of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.” While the hotel itself is spectacular, it is only the first part of the larger Zeitz MOCAA development that will soon be open to the public.

The building contains 42 densely packed cylindrical silos that have been hollowed out to house the hotel and art museum. Heatherwick Studio had to work around the building’s industrial features — and the fact that the structure was never intended to be habitable — so they decided to convert the silos into a cathedral-like atrium to allow some light into the cavernous space while preserving some of its former glory.

The hotel sits above the soon-to-be contemporary art museum and is largely visible from the outside. A series of bulging windows has been set into the existing lengths of silos that span the building’s facade. Old floors and bays are marked by the structure’s original concrete divisions, whose harsh, solid look is offset by the windows’ modern geometric patterns. The building’s newfound translucency not only gives the Silo an iconic and inviting aesthetic, but will also allow it to shine as a beacon of light throughout the Cape Town harbor. In total, the hotel has been equipped with a comfortable 28 guest rooms.

Operated by hotel group The Royal Portfolio, The Silo occupies the grain elevator portion of the complex and is spread out over six floors that overlook the bay, the city, and the surrounding hills. Each room was personally designed by The Royal Portfolio founder, famed South African interior designer and Cape Town native Liz Biden, whose discerning touch is visible in every aspect of the decor, from the choice of fabrics down to the light fittings. She explains: “My goal has always been to pay tribute to luxury and [provide] comfort for our guests. This has meant balancing the stark and industrial style of the architecture with aspects of classic glamor and modern comfort.”

One of the main concepts leading the interior design was an emphasis on the contrast between old and new, or the highlighting of the building’s original purpose while simultaneously pointing towards its contemporary character. Biden has crafted a luxury experience within The Silo that is quintessentially South African, and Heatherwick has ensured that the entire complex will become synonymous with Cape Town’s skyline in the near future. It shouldn’t take very long at all for the building to become an icon considering the fact that the V&A Waterfront is one of South Africa’s most frequented tourist destinations and attracts over 24 million visitors a year.

The post Thomas Heatherwick Converts Cape Town Grain Silo into Hotel first appeared on Dornob.

An elevated glass koi pond, a sleek suspended porte cochere and the semi-circular facade of this luxury retreat in South Africa are dramatically framed by towering beams. Glass House by Nico Van Der Meulen Architects is a dynamic space full of transparent walls, with an open interior that welcomes in sunlight and views of the tranquil backyard.

The suspended glass and steel portico leading into the structure has a cantilevered effect thanks to narrow steel supports and vast expanses of glass. An above-ground koi pond set in a reflecting pool serves as both a dramatic focal point, and a means of regulating temperature in both summer and winter.

The glass doors of the lanai can all be opened, blurring the transition between the interior spaces and the large swimming pool and gardens outdoors. This luxury home also features an art gallery, gym, a basement garage with parking for twelve cars and a main suite with a built-in kitchenette and a transparent glass bathroom with automatic blinds that look translucent from outside, but still allow views from within.

The heated pond continues from the outside of the home to the inside, where it is topped with glass and a stainless steel staircase illuminated with blue LED lights.

Subtle, this monumental house is not; its size and complexity borrows from the over-the-top aesthetics of the 1980s, and some aspects of it recall more commercial structures. Taking elements from luxury residences of Johannesburg from decades past, the design of the Glass House fulfills the owners’ request for glamour.

More from the architects

“Nico van der Meulen Architects presented an architectural design in a horseshoe shape around a central water feature. The frameless glass folding doors start at the dining room and stretch for approximately 70m around the dining room, atrium, family room, lanai, water feature and gym. The family room is a partially double volume space, flowing seamlessly into the lanai and heated indoor pool.”

“The staircase floats over a pond that is solar heated in winter, together the indoor pool and heat storage tanks keep the home at a constant 24°C throughout winter. In the background, a circular raised glass water feature is framed by a two storey high beam which obviates the need for corner columns at the main suite.”

The post Glam Glass House is a Monumental Luxury Retreat first appeared on Dornob.

Who says modern and rustic styles can’t be blended? This elegant conversion by Elmo Swart, an architect, photographer and designer based in Cape Town, South Africa, takes traditional thatched roofing and organic shapes and contrasts them with lots of glazing and sleek minimalist interiors.

The architect began with a modest hut, which now forms the core of the renovated home. The curved addition comes a beautifully contrasting extension, reaching out into the adjacent forest environs.

Elmo Swart Architects started with a simple gesture – a single arcing steel-framed plane that wraps up the outside of the building, clad partly in permeable bamboo where it forms a lofted outdoor deck. This extension seems to embrace the more conventional part of the house from behind, one end telescoping out to gaze at the gorgeous views. Outside, it also hangs over the edge of a partly-underground driveway terminus, cantilevered to both conceal and protect cars parked outdoors below its floors.

Local materials inform and soften the stark modern shapes, from packed-earth walls and natural-wood finishes to furniture and furnishings from the old home moved into the new sections. The fluid, C-shaped house is also situated around an existing tree, adding to its organic appeal. Glass balcony edges ensure that the views aren’t interrupted, even from beds tucked into alcoves that feel more like balconies than conventional bedrooms.

Inside, the expanded floor plan includes a pair of new studies, a bedroom and a multipurpose entertainment, art gallery and gathering space. Protected from the sun yet open to the breeze, infused with daylight and delighting in its singular location, ‘Wright Conversion’ is a lovely example of incorporating vernacular architecture of a particular place into modern structures. Too often, we see homogenized architecture erase much of the character, culture and history of a city; this is how you balance a sense of rootedness with the comforts and aesthetics of a contemporary lifestyle.

The post Organic South African Villa Transformed first appeared on Dornob.