Jaco Booyens Architect & SAOTA Restores Buffelsdrift Farm

Project Location: Ladismith, South Africa

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Architects in Collaboration: Jaco Booyens Architect & SAOTA

Contractor: Pro-Projects and De Kock Bouers

Landscaping: Fritz Coetzee

Interior Designer: ARRCC

Bespoke Furniture: OKHA

Thatching: JNA Thatchers

Irrigation: Groen Karoo

Photographer: Adam Letch

Copy by: Graham Wood

This is a view of the property showcasing the farm and the various structures with different tones.

This is a look at the house that has white exterior walls and dark brown roof complemented by the tall trees and swamp-like landscape.

This is a nighttime view of the house from the vantage of the wide drive showcasing the shrubs and trees on the isde of the house that glows warmly.

This is a look at the courtyard of the house that has medium-sized trees and red soil that pairs well with the bright white exteriors.

This is a close look at the pool with a stone walkway and small concrete structures lined with plants.

This is a view of one of the house from the vantage of the mosaic stone walkway complemented with a medium-sized tree to bring color to the white exteriors.

This is a view of the side of the house that has a small side entrance topped with an outdoor staircase that leads to the upper terrace.

This is the main entrance of one of the houses with a couple of rustic stone steps and wooden main door flanked by wall lamps.

This is an exterior view of the property featuring the three white houses bordered with a simple fence.

This is a view of one of the houses with white exteriors showcasing the stone walkways and the miniature gardens that complement the exteriors.

This structure has a more earthy tone to its exterior walls making it blend with the terrain.

The structure has a simple and minimalist design that makes it a part of the surrounding landscape.

This other structure has a shocking pink exterior that makes it stand out.

This is the main entrance of the pink house adorned with a couple of tall tropical trees and a simple fence.

This is the back of the house showcasing a simple landscaping that makes the pink exteriors of the house stand out.

This is a living room with a large curved sectional sofa across from the modern fireplace topped with a wall artwork.

This dining area has a large rectangular wooden dining table attached to the kitchen island of the kitchen.

The primary bedroom has a large dark wooden four-poster bed complemented by the patterned area rug and the wooden beamed ceiling above.

This is another look at the primary bedroom with its four-poster bed and bench at the foot of the bed.

This is a close look at the rustic bathroom with a wooden table for the vanity to support the sink paired with a small window and a large mirror.

This is the main entrance of the house with textured earthy walls and cove brick ceiling.

The main entrance has a pair of doors that has a unique design that lets in natural lighting even when it is closed.

This is a closer look at the textured earthy wall and the brick ceiling.

A few steps from the eat-in kitchen is the staircase that is adorned with wooden accents and a beamed ceiling.

This is another look at the large wooden dining table that is attached to the kitchen island paired with white stools to pair with the frame of the kitchen.

This is a view of the family room area from the vantage of the eat-in kitchen table showcasing a dark sofa set to pair with the dark glass-top coffee table.

This is a close look at the stair case with steps that match the mosaic rustic stone floor adorned with wooden accents on the side.

This is a look up the staircase with wooden steps, a wooden window on the side and wooden dresser at the landing above.

The landing, you can see the four-poster bed paired with bean bag chairs and topped with a wooden beamed ceiling.

The spacious bathroom has a rustic feel to its long wooden table that serves as the support for the sink paired with tall windows.

On the side of this long rustic vanity is the shower area on the far side with walls to match the tone of the flooring.

BUFFELSDRIFT, LADISMITH, SOUTH AFRICA

The restoration of the ensemble of heritage buildings on Buffelsdrift, west of Ladismith in the arid Klein Karoo region of the Western Cape, by SAOTA and Jaco Booyens Architect, a specialist in clay buildings, recently won the gold medal at the seventh edition (2019) of the international Domus Restoration and Conservation Award (www.premiorestauro.it) in Italy. The award recognizes “excellence in the field of restoration, redevelopment and architectural and landscape recovery at an international level”.

The restoration involved a cluster of Cape buildings in a valley beneath the Swartberg mountain range, consisting of the main house and two barns, plus a store. A short way off is a flat-roofed building, typical of the Ladismith style, which was originally used as a wine store. Other structures on the property include a contemporary shed, a cottage further up a hill, and a graveyard.

The house, barns, and the wine store were all restored. SAOTA director Greg Truen, who acquired the farm in 2016, notes that while minor additions and modern alterations had been made to the buildings, the original house, was “in good condition, considering” and that the barns were “fundamentally untouched”.

In the main house, evidence of earlier refurbishments in the 1970s was stripped out, while modern kitchens and bathrooms were inserted in an adaptive approach to conservation. A new pump house was added near the dam wall on the property. Its design and construction were an experiment in contemporary architecture using the same materials and techniques as the heritage buildings, including poured mud or “cob” walls, as well as brick-vaulted roofs. The landscaping around the house took the form of a series of low terraces.

Licenses to graze livestock on the land date back to the mid-1700s, and it is clear that it was farmed before the 1800s. The original circular farm was divided into smaller parts over the years. The main house on this portion of the farm dates back to 1852. The date and initials IWDV, Isak Wilhelm van der Vyver, are inscribed above the door. The Van der Vyver family was associated with Buffesldrift as far back as 1768 when they first leased the farm.

Incidentally, 1852 was the year in which Ladismith was proclaimed, unlocking growth and development in the area. Fruit trees, grapes, and other crops were farmed in the valley, although by the late 1800s and early 20th century, crops were largely abandoned in favor of ostrich farming, which brought great prosperity as a result of the international ostrich feather boom. The collapse of the fashion for ostrich feathers, war, and drought brought economic devastation, and the once-bustling valley was largely abandoned. Now olives are commonly farmed in the valley.

Hans Fransen’s seminal study, The Old Buildings of The Cape, records “three old buildings … all with Prince Albert-type end-gables (holbol with horizontal string courses)”. The main T-shaped homestead, he says, “has massive loft steps at the side and original holbol stoepbankies”.

He notes the inscription and dating above the front door of the main house which “tallies with the plaster-framed woodwork (although the halved front door with its small-paned fanlight and fluted and dentiled entablature looks much older)”.

Architectural historian Roger C Fisher, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Pretoria, who visited Buffelsdrift, wrote an unpublished account of his observations, Buffelsdrift – An Anatomy of a Vernacular, in which he details aspects of its construction and history.

He says that a speculative reading of the architectural fabric of the buildings led him to suspect that the house “was originally a simple longhouse thatched cottage” that was subsequently added to. The outbuildings, which probably predate the house, have “simpler rudimentary hol-bol gables with … semicircular pinnacles” and those of the “main body of the homestead are similar but more refined”.

“The most decorative, strangely located to the rear of the house, is the central hol-bol (concavo-convex) gable of the T-wing where the kitchen is located, with its circular capping and string-molded bottom chord, for which Fransen has coined the term ‘Prince Alfred Gable,’” he writes. He suspects that it dates to the time when the original thatch roof was replaced with corrugated iron “somewhere in the later nineteenth century”. Truen notes that gables of the main body of the house have semi-circular tops.

Fransen also points out the unusual shutter on the fanlight. Additional research by Booyens revealed that the lock on the front door was French, dating back to the 1700s. He had it restored by a specialist in Paarl. Various articles that appeared in the press over the years as the farm changed owners note that the original stinkwood doors and wardrobes in the main house remained intact.

The front section of the house consists of a central living room with a bedroom on each side. The T-section included a dining area. While the front section had yellowwood beams and ceilings, the rafters in T-section were exposed. A lean-to section with a fireplace had been added in one of the elbows of the T using sundried bricks. It was being used as a kitchen.

The house and barns had been constructed according to the usual technique used by Dutch settlers in the Cape, with walls of poured mud or clay, cast layer by layer about 700mm wide. “This method of construction – ubiquitously used by Dutch settlers, trekboers and later Voortrekkers – requires a source of clayey ground into which is added ‘a good proportion’ of sand and grit, possibly straw or dung, combined in a pit, all trod through by oxen-hooves in span,” writes Fisher (quoting William John Burchell’s Travels In The Interior Of Southern Africa).

By Jon Dykstra · See their LinkedIn.