Meshworks Architecture + Urbanism Ventures on an Unfolding Journey of Exploration with New Highveld House
New Highveld House offers a reverence for cyclical change, an innovative answer to a desire for comfort and permanence, and an appreciation of natural forms and materials. Located in Johannesburg and designed by Meshworks Architecture + Urbanism, the project sought to create a forever home to delight and surprise, navigable as its retired owners age. Inspired by an unfolding journey rooted in pre-colonial forms of spacemaking, the home is a venture in challenging the traditional domestic typologies of the Highveld.
The inspiration of exploration
From the outset, the design approach for this project was guided by the client’s desire for a house that inspired exploration. Meshworks went forth by conceptualising this project as a home that continuously unfolds and reveals itself in layers. Inspired by the client’s dream for this home, Meshworks extended the concept by integrating the site’s natural slope, orientation, and optimal sun angles for winter and summer.
Juxtaposing concepts
Upon better understanding the site, the focus turned to challenging the rectilinear property boundary constraints radically by creating a building that escapes these restrictions, turning away from nearby neighbouring buildings, and focussing inwards. The design advanced through many stages of refinement using 3D testing, sketching, and material studies. A series of contrasting concepts helped advance the primary focus on creating an explorative journey, which included fluidity versus rectilinearity, expanding versus contracting, exposing versus hiding, and placing versus burying.
An experiential journey
Thick ribbon walls of rammed earth are intersected by large glass planes enclosing the interiors, while gridded concrete block walls provide a Cartesian counterpoint to the sinuous plasticity. Permeable steel screens filter views and disaggregate the solidity. The house is not merely a place of dwelling — it is an experiential journey. A canyon-like spine ramps from the driveway to the public areas then descends towards private zones nestled in the south. A walkway — circling from the living spaces to the sunlit bedroom walkway and defining the central courtyard — sets up an ever-changing orbit. Views are simultaneously restricted and revealed, spaces compressed and expanded.
Uncanny and unprecedented
The house scoops its largely indigenously-planted surroundings into its rhythms and flows. Light is wielded optimally through strategic openings and the house changes radically as sunshine dances across its ochre walls. The design is also inextricably linked to the site’s topography. With its permeable exterior paving, thick thermally responsive walls, double glazing, slab insulation, water storage, and solar energy, this house minimises its reliance on resources and maintenance. Its undulating forms and natural patinas further offer an uncanny energy; an unprecedented response to the location’s context.
Embracing the limits
Using stabilised rammed earth as the primary building material in a residential setting presented a unique challenge. Meshworks explored the material’s potential and qualities through horizontal curves, aligning radii, and ramming around circular openings. This allowed the design to embrace and push the limits of rammed earth, resulting in a confident architecture that reflects the site’s tones and hues, once more resonating with the context.
New Highveld House speaks to an innovative approach to architecture that is deeply rooted in its environment yet pushes the boundaries of traditional design. Meshworks Architecture + Urbanism has crafted a home that respects the natural rhythms of the Highveld while offering a profound sense of permanence, adaptability, and discovery. Harmonising the ever-changing landscape with the life cycles of its residents, this home is a timeless sanctuary that reflects both the resilience of nature and the progressive potential of modern South African architecture.
This article is an extract from our 2024/25 Coffee Table Edition. Click here to read the full issue.
