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Project name: Rooiels Beach House

Location: Rooiels, Western Cape

Interior Designer: Elphick Proome Interiors

Architect: George Elphick

This is the epitome of a one room glass pavilion set in an idyllic beach location. The brief from the client, a businessman from Johannesburg,
was to create a single space leisure house capitalizing on the site’s remarkable environment in the small village of Rooiels.

The genesis of the building was a sketch on a paper napkin over a calamari lunch in Hermanus some five years ago. A torturous journey ensued with the creation of a landmark beach house set amongst the fynbos on an exposed rocky peninsula and elevated above its site. Designed as a glazed pavilion with sub-divisible internal spaces foiled with mechanically operable timber solar screens, the house is raised on a semi-submerged concrete podium. Counterpointed by a freestanding pool an subterranean entry court and garage, the elongated pavilion with a floating curvilinear roof displays a sophisticated, minimal architectural language which hovers gently in its unique setting.

The programme had to accommodate a beach house which offered relaxed lifestyle spaces including living spaces, four bedrooms, barbecue court, verandas, gym and wine cellar. Internal sliding walls have created the opportunity to open sleeping spaces during the day to form a single living space. This then opens out on all four edges into broad cantilevered decks. The effect created is thus an ‘umbrella’ connecting isotropically to the amazing environment that cradles the house.