Architects Of Justice Architects Of Justice 2018 Review | Page 13

Architects: Architects Of Justice
Project Manager: Condor & Co Project Management
Structural Engineers: Professional Consultants Corporation
Contractor: Ingwe Construction
Steelwork Contractor: Quality Steel
Structural Steel Detailer: Orbit Steel/Quality Steel
Cladding Supplier: Chromadek
Energy Consultants: Structatherm Projects
Quantity Surveyor: Build Aid
W
hen a client approached Johannesburg-based Architects Of Justice and
commissioned an avant-garde retreat he could disappear to, a journey began
which would culminate in a recent Commendation for the project in the Mpumalanga
Institute for Architecture (MPIA) Awards for Architecture 2017.
The site for the project, situated within the Mjejane Private Game Reserve – a private
Big 5 game reserve incorporated into the Kruger National Park – opens onto a view
of the Crocodile River on the north boundary with a green belt on its eastern edge.
The retreat was designed to maximise the connection to nature and wild game while
ensuring privacy between the five en-suite bedrooms as well as from neighbouring
lodges. The rigorous estate guidelines motivated the architects to design around the
existing flora on the site, which led to a freeform design that required only three trees
to be replanted.
It was one of Architects Of Justice’s early projects, the SEED Library, a shipping
container structure for the MC Weiler Primary School in Alexandra, Johannesburg,
completed in 2010, which led to the practice being approached by the client for the
Mjejane project. The library had caught the attention of the architectural fraternity,
winning a number of awards, including an SAIA Award of Merit, the Afrisam SAIA
Award for Sustainable Architecture and an international award for architects under the
age of 35, the YAA (Young Architects in Africa) Competition. While visiting his daughter
in Hong Kong, the client was paging through an architectural magazine featuring the
library when his son-in-law commented that he went to university with the architects.
After meeting with Architects Of Justice, where he requested an unconventional
and innovative retreat, project architect Kuba Granicki worked on a concept model
for the client, who immediately approved it. “It was a meeting of minds,” says Granicki,
explaining that the original model is satisfyingly close to how the completed project
turned out.