House van Pletzen: Pavilions in the landscape

House van Pletzen:

Pavilions in the landscape

Based in Parktown North with a typical 400m2 stand, the clients bought a piece of subdivided land from their adjacent neighbours to allow them a more expansive back yard garden space.

Being ardent gardeners and chefs, their brief to the architects was to use the land to create a series of entertainment areas, a swimming pool and an outdoor deck area. The rest of the garden area was conceived as a series of landscaped pleasure gardens, herbal gardens and a vegetable and fruit tree productive area which would allow the clients to harvest and prepare vegetarian dishes throughout the year.

The architects' design response was to create two glass conservatories with frameless stacking sliding doors, with energy-efficient glass, which allows for seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces and activity areas.

The back area was raised to create a freestanding greenhouse and vegetable growing area, which is screened from entertainment areas with a series of framed fruit tree espaliers (hedges). This is a highly productive area and in combination with the greenhouse-controlled environment ensures a year-round supply of fresh edibles.

The main conservatory is a lounge and cooking and dining area, which interfaces with the outdoor deck and swimming pool to allow for year-round indoor-outdoor living and entertaining. ■