RESONANCE

PERCHED ON A ROCKY RIDGE IN PRETORIA, THIS BOLD REIMAGINING OF A 1970s HOME FUSES CONTEMPORARY AESTHETICS WITH RAW MATERIALS TO CAPTURE THE SPIRIT OF AN URBAN FARMHOUSE.

- GRAHAM WOOD

“A FRIEND ONCE SAID TO US, ‘You don't ever choose the easy way, do you?’” say Ryk and Irma Coetzee, the owners of this hillside home in Waterkloof Ridge in Pretoria. But then, as the saying goes, nothing good comes easy.

Ryk and Irma bought their house – built in the late 1970s and empty for some time, “with no kitchen, horrific plumbing and uncertain electrical wiring” – with the intention to renovate it. What captured their imagination was the spectacular view, say their architects, Grete Van As and Johan Wentzel of W Design Architecture Studio. [You can read more about Grete and Johan's design approach on page 80.] The house is perched on the steep, rocky slopes of a ridge, with the ground dropping away dramatically below it; and despite its suburban setting, it felt wild and untouched.

“We semi-renovated it just enough to make it liveable,” say Ryk and Irma. Then, they lived there for five years before deciding on a more substantial renovation that would ultimately transform the entire hillside site. They wanted to make the most of the view while preserving the original flow of the house. They were anxious that it should “retain the magic”, but they were also drawn to the notion of a suburban farmhouse. They were already halfway there, having arrived with a menagerie of cats, dogs, rabbits and geese. Their wish list included vegetable gardens, an olive grove and a greenhouse.