Timber iQ October - November 2018 // Issue: 40 | Page 28

PROJECTS
Malan Vorster Architecture consider the staircase to be one of its prime achievements in the design of the treehouse.
Continued from page 24
Designed by architects Pieter Malan, Jan-Heyn Vorster and
Peter Urry, the Paarman Treehouse’s structure and materials
are experienced as fragile and ‘temporary’, while its
relationship to place and its immediate context could be
perceived as its only sense of permanence. Therefore, the
treehouse makes a critically important contribution to the
local and international architectural traditions and
precedent. Not only is it an addition, but it boasts all the
characteristics of becoming one of the benchmarks of
quality and inspiration with which contributions of others
will be measured.
DISSECTING THE DESIGN ANATOMY
Both the architect and the client are well aware of the
terrains of architectural thinking and physical realisation.
There is also a close correlation between the client’s desires
for the project and the architect’s interpretation thereof. In
such a situation it would also have been very easy to allow
absolute indulgence to reign supreme.
However, the complete opposite is true – both the
architect and the client display total restraint. This
understatement is thoughtful, measured and subtle,
achieving a sense of poetry that is quite unique in global
architectural discourse. The architects have taken their cues
from some of the master architects who have, throughout
time and space, created some of the most iconic and
respected structures of this genre.
26 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2018 //
Malan Vorster Architecture also worked with pure geometric
forms. These forms, namely the circle and the square,
created the framework for the design – specifically as far as
the plan is concerned. However, they have allowed
themselves a wonderful freedom in the sections and
elevations of the building. When physically viewed these
are, by their very nature, the most dominant and memorable
experiences of the building – belying the strict geometrical
pattern of the plan.
The building process was outside of the normal
conventions of procurement – this largely handmade
building was mostly painstakingly created over a relatively
long period of time on the site itself. As far as the site
conditions and views are concerned, the architects were
able to find the most advantageous position, thanks to their
previous experience working on the site.
When the building is physically experienced in its
context by moving through it, it’s as if the structure as an
object and internal space disappears and only its profound
relationship to its place on earth remains as the real
memory of its physicality. In terms of its structure and
materials, the building is experienced as fragile and
‘temporary’. Whereas this unique building could have easily
been an expression of personal indulgence, its overriding
quality is of restraint and care.
ONE WITH NATURE
The Paarman Treehouse comprises of essentially three
levels – the first level, which leads onto a balcony, features