Cheetah Plains have been awarded the BUILD – Architecture Awards 2023 for Best Eco-Luxury Hospitality Design (Africa).
BUILD Magazine is a leading trade publication based in the UK, with global focus on the construction industry.
“We are thrilled with this award that pays homage to the design aesthetic and integrity of what we set out to achieve as a luxury sustainable safari lodge of the modern era.”
– Owner Japie van Niekerk.
Cheetah Plains architectural approach is ultra contemporary afro-minimalism
Linear planes meet vast panoramas. Geometry overlays geography. Floating beams stretch weightlessly through the length of buildings. Simple pure elements blur the line between built and organic form. The architectural vision was that one should connect with the wild from within, that there should be no threshold, no separation.
Buildings are contemporary, based in place and display an honesty of structure. Avoiding a themed approach, favouring an authentic use of materials and details. Focusing on elegant and beautiful spaces with textures that flow seamlessly from outside to inside – dexterous, tactile. The result is at once uniquely African and sublimely modern, combining ultimate privacy with the power of nature uninterrupted.
Geometry overlays geography. Floating beams stretch weightlessly through the length of buildings. Simple pure elements blur the line between built and organic form. The architectural vision was that one should connect with the wild from within, that there should be no threshold, no separation.
“The architecture exists to enhance the experience of the outdoors. Not to mimic it but to compliment. That guests may experience the bush more directly, more immediately. Architecture and nature in perfect balance.”
– Stefan Antoni
ARRCC’s notion of shelter gave rise to a shape that was to become distinctive and differentiating. Two lines converging at an angle, with the tip slightly bevelled. Reminiscent of convergent Acacia thorns or the distant silhouette of a bird in flight; Africans have long used this shape as a shelter, a shield, even a defence formation. In plan, a filleted radius, found in each of the three private houses. Like all elements on the property, seemingly opposing forces blend in unexpected ways, creating something beautiful.
This divaricate form is the aesthetic signature of Cheetah Plains.
“The climate here can be brutal. Intense dry, cold, heat, rain. With a significant wind factor.
– Jon Case
ARRCC’s ideology of shelter is that it needs to protect from the elements, without cutting out nature.”
