House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Interior Photography, Dining room, Wood, BeamHouse of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Interior PhotographyHouse of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior PhotographyHouse of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior PhotographyHouse of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - More Images+ 34

  • Architects: Frankie Pappas
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  120
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2019
  • Photographs
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Adobe
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House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography
© Frankie Pappas

Marrying sandstone cliff and riverine forest - The Site - The building occupies a unique place in a nature reserve in the Waterberg mountains of South Africa; a landscape of remarkable plants, inspiring cliffs, and prodigious wildlife. 

The Brief - 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. 

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography, Wood, Deck
© Frankie Pappas
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Image 25 of 39
First Floor Plan
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Interior Photography, Dining room, Wood, Beam
© Dook for Visi

The Idea - 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). 

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Interior Photography, Brick
© Dook for Visi

Materials - 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 aluminium fill in the non-structural wall.

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Interior Photography
© Dook for Visi

Programme - The first floor offers to its inhabitants a planted courtyard, a reclusive lounge, a sunlit dining room, a farmhouse kitchen and scullery, a tree-shaded deck, a small pool and a fireplace - around which most of the cooking and living occurs the ground floor provide yet more courtyards, a study, library and a small swing bench under the arch the cellar creates a climate conducive to curing meats, storing food supplies and ageing wines 

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Frankie Pappas
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Image 28 of 39
Isometric View
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Dook for Visi

Solutions - We designed an incredibly thin building - 3300mm wide - this allowed us to thread the building through the tree-scape any funky bulges and protrusions in the plan of the building were dictated by where trees allowed us to build in order to further ensure that no tree would be harmed, we laser-scanned the entire site we then converted this information into a digital 3D model so that we could see every tree and every branch when making critical design decisions we were in essence designing this building in a digital forest.

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography
© Frankie Pappas

Clients - The clients are an elderly couple, whose love and knowledge of the bushveld is extraordinary and inspiring every tree and bush and insect and bird and mammal is a personal friend of theirs they are enthusiastically involved in the environmental education of underprivileged youngsters from the surrounding areas opening up their farm to- and sharing their experience with these kids when asked why they are so involved, their answer is typically salt-of-and-down-to-earth: ‘there is too much beauty here for us to use up all by ourselves’. 

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography
© Frankie Pappas
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Image 32 of 39
Roof Plan
House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography, Wood
© Frankie Pappas

How is the building unique? This building is a careful and direct response to this particular portion of this particular riverine forest of this particular portion of the Waterberg of this particular portion of the bushveld this architecture could exist nowhere else in the world.

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography
© Frankie Pappas

Sustainability - The entire house is off-the-grid - completely and utterly water from the roofs is collected and filtered through the forest black- and greywater is stored and processed before being filtered by the undergrowth energy is harvested by 16sqm of solar panels but more important than this, is that the architecture works with its environment to create breeze and shade and comfort which allows it to have minimal energy demands. 
We cannot ever divide architecture, landscape and gardening: they are one

House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas - Exterior Photography
© Frankie Pappas

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About this office
Cite: "House of the Big Arch / Frankie Pappas" 19 Jul 2020. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/943751/house-of-the-big-arch-frankie-pappas> ISSN 0719-8884

© Frankie Pappas

南非狭长拱门之宅 / Frankie Pappas

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