Cabine du Cap

How Caracal engages with the ground and its site is pivotal. It’s a magnificent landscape and we felt the privilege and gravity of honouring and amplifying the experience of the site and a sense of the place. We balanced these aspirations with the unique context presented by the site, client and accommodation brief.

In this instance we chose to float the main timber-framed building (suite 1, 2 and main living) above the ground to allow for the beautiful natural rock features, flora and fauna to continue to pass beneath it. This significantly minimises the impact of the building on the site and because in our minds the “timber cabin in the pristine wilderness” is floated above the ground and our intention was to develop a modern interpretation with reference to that stereotype.

For suite 3 and the bunk room we then decided to make the building ‘of’ the site by tucking it down into the existing natural gradient of the site, cladding it in dry stacked natural stone hand-collected from the site and planting the roof with the vegetation found on the site to ‘disappear’ the mass of the building significantly minimise the visual impact of the structure.

Most of the initial design process unfolded while on site.

The use of natural materials (stone and timber) is always key for us. We chose materials that would render the building more and more invisible in its surroundings with each passing year. The design of the building and orientation allows for natural ventilation and air flow for cooling (no air-conditioning units) to reduce energy consumption (the farm is “off-the grid”).,