House of the Big Arch, Waterberg Green Home, South African Sustainable Architecture, Eco Building Images
House of the Big Arch in Waterberg, South Africa
29 Jan 2020
House of the Big Arch
Design: Frankie Pappas
Location: Waterberg, South Africa

House of the Big Arch occupies a unique place in a nature reserve situated in the Waterberg Mountains of South Africa; A landscape of remarkable plants, inspiring cliffs, and prodigious wildlife

The brief was to design a home that disappears into the landscape; That sits amongst the rocks and trees and birds;

That offers animals and plants and humans equal opportunity to find shelter; That treats the bushveld with its deserved respect.

The underlying concept was to bridge the landscape between riverine forest and sandstone cliff, whilst raising the living space into the tree canopy, amongst the abundant arboreal life
The building is organised as one long thin building which slots between the forest trees. The shapes of the additions to the central building are dictated by the position and size of the surrounding trees (not one tree was demolished during the construction of this home).

The building makes use of a very simple set of materials which all play their part in making the building part of its landscape

The most abundant material is a rough stock brick which was selected to match the site?s weathered sandstone. The ?bridge? portions of the building are constructed from sustainably-grown timbers, whilst glass and alumini...