SUNKEN - MONAGHAN FARM HOUSE

THE BOLD ARCHITECTURE AND RAW CONCRETE FINISHES OF THIS HIGHVELD HOME MAKE A SURPRISINGLY "GENTLE INTERVENTION IN THE ENVIRONMENT", AS ITS ARCHITECT PUTS IT.

- GRAHAM WOOD

The gigantic door at the front entrance is practically a sculpture, fashioned from metal with brass hinges, which owner Lukas van Niekerk, an engineer, manufactured on site while the house was being built.

THIS HOUSE IN MONAGHAN FARM IN LANSERIA, on a beautiful spot overlooking a bend in the Jukskei River, began with a bold, Brutalist architectural idea - but the result is an incredibly subtle, sensitive response to its setting. The owners, Wendy and Lukas van Niekerk, wanted a home made entirely of steel and raw, exposed concrete, and this spectacular plot of land offered them the chance to build from scratch. Lukas, an engineer, is a huge fan of the work of 20th-century Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, who is famous for his sensitive use of concrete as well as experiments with concrete and steel - and the Van Niekerks' architect, Enrico Daffonchio, went to school in Scarpa's hometown of Venice in Italy. The fates had aligned.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT From the street-level gate by sculptor Conrad Hicks, stairs descend to the front door; a natural plant-filtered swimming pool is raised above ground level, partly in reference to agricultural reservoirs and partly to keep frogs from hopping in; the glass pavilions with "green fingers" between them knit the landscape and architecture together; raised boardwalks wind through the naturalistic planting of local grassland.

Despite what Enrico refers to as its "strong architectural language", the house they designed together is nestled into the landscape and, when viewed from higher up the hill, is practically invisible (helped by the green roofs planted with endemic grasses to recreate the landscape it's built on). It is, quite literally, sunken into the landscape to keep its presence unobtrusive.