African project
Swartberg House – South Africa
a house
for all
seasons
This passive solar new-build house on the edge of the Great Karoo desert in
South Africa acts as a poetic and flexible agricultural object, a harvester of light
and air, which is adjusted by its inhabitants in response to the changing natural
elements. Key elements of the brief to Openstudio Architects were: to bring the
inhabitants into a closer relationship with an awareness of the natural world –
the spectacular natural landscape of the Swartberg and the Karoo – along with
changes in light, heat and wind, at different times of day and during different
seasons; to focus on passive, rather than active means to heat and cool the
building, with a ‘fabric first’ approach to the design and planning of the house;
and to use local labour and materials which connect with the traditional methods
of building in the Karoo.
T
he house is located on the outskirts of the town of Prince Albert, at the foot of the
Swartberg Pass, a World Heritage site. The shifted geometries of the plan are a
consequence of arranging the spaces in response to the surrounding landscape: the
volumetrically differentiated rooms are inflected relative to one another, in order to
capture specific views of the mountains and grasslands. The far views of the Karoo
to the north and east are balanced by the rise of the mountains to the south. To the
west, the house is more opaque, screening out the burning summer light, while the
upper terraces allow views to the sunsets, and the town, at cooler times of day and
in the winter.
In line with the low energy use and low technology requirements of the brief, the house avoids
sophisticated installations for heating and cooling. Temperatures range from 40 degrees Celsius
in the summer to minus 6 degrees Celsius in the winter, so the house had to accommodate a large
range in temperature using passive techniques. The building therefore relies on the fabric of the
building – thick insulated brick walls giving a high thermal mass, dark brick floors to retain heat in
winter, double-glazed timber windows, high level ventilation into high volumes and sliding timber
shutters – to modulate temperatures. The east-west orientation allows the principle spaces to
Photographs: Richard Davies
africandesignmagazine.com
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