The clients required for their imminent retirement a compact farmhouse which was both comfortable and secure, to be owner built by their son and farm labour. The game farm site is a narrow rocky platform amongst enormous wild figs, acacias and paper-barks, and constrained to the east by a rock sheet, located along a stretch of corrugated and rocky dirt roads deep in the Waterberg Bushveld.

The architect took inspiration from the traditional Transvaal Farmhouse as a shed building, but then interpreted as a plan libre, the facilities designed in the manner of traditional organic mud architecture. What was unusual in the execution of the project is that the only drawings available for construction were the set of sketch drawings and timber engineer’s plans.

What is achieved is a small building of high merit, with a sense of spaciousness and enclosure, exceptionally well crafted and detailed, that has fit with the landscape and fitness for its purpose, and allows for a lifestyle of comfort and repose.