African Design Magazine May 2015 | Page 31

African project: Lost Villa a concrete slab, itself like the co-opted remains of some abandoned highway project, it’s projection defining the inhabitable spaces and acting as a large floor in the tree canopy of the Gigiri forest. Cars enter at the top of the ridge and progress down around the perimeter of the stone boundary wall toward the mid- point of the plot. Leaving vehicles here the sequence is completed on foot through a semicloistered walled garden. This leads to the living room set out in the spirit of a covered ‘verandah’, from where a majestic view across a forested valley, first glimpsed from the main gate, comes into focus. The building generates its own electricity from pv cells and harvests all rainwater in tanks under the courtyard terrace. AD africandesignmagazine.com 31