Living Sculpture

The custodians of SCULPTOR EDOARDO VILLA’S Mid-Century house recently decided TO LIVE in this ARCHITECTURAL LANDMARK. They’re making a radical PACT with the spirit of the past, and finding WAYS TO KEEP it ALIVE in the PRESENT

- Graham Wood

A few years after sculptor Edoardo Villa’s death in 2011, art dealer Warren Siebrits and interior designer Lunetta Bartz became the custodians of his house in the suburb of Kew, Johannesburg. Villa, one of South Africa’s most important 20th century sculptors, commissioned the house in 1968, and lived there with his wife Claire for the rest of their lives.

The house itself is an architectural gem, rich with Joburg art history. Italian-born Villa first lived on the property after WWII, after he was released from Zonderwater where he had been a prisoner of war. He quickly immersed himself in the South African art world, and fashionable artist Douglas Portway and his wife invited him to stay at their home in Kew. ‘What is now Edoardo’s studio was actually the Portways’ lounge and kitchen,’ says Warren. Eventually Villa moved out and the Portways sold the house, but when it came up for sale again in 1959, Villa bought it. In 1968, he commissioned his good friend, architect Ian McLennan, to build a new house on the property. There was no brief. ‘[Edoardo] presented [McLennan] with a limited budget, but he gave him carte blanche,’ says Warren.

As a result, the house is surprisingly small – just over 100m 2 – but architecturally rich. In his book, Johannesburg Transition (Real African Publishers), architectural historian Clive Chipkin notes the house’s ‘powerful sculptural bagged brick forms’. He writes: ‘Low tranquil living areas contrast with unexpected explosions of multi-volume space... [giving] the small house a monumental, perhaps exaggerated, sculptural presence.’