INTO THE EARTH

An architect’s weekend getaway on an ancient geological site south of Johannesburg reprises traditional building techniques using earth and stone to create a sleek, sustainable house that provides a glimpse of a possible future

Architect Xavier Huyberechts has a wonderfully poetic way of describing how he designed the weekend getaway that he and his brother, Damien, built on their farm south of Johannesburg. He says that he wanted to “gently lift the carpet at the bottom of the hill and slide the house underneath”.

And that is exactly what he has done. A green roof runs seamlessly from the hillside and over the house, like a blanket of earth. The house is almost invisible from many angles, almost disappearing into the landscape. In fact, the way the house has been designed and built means that it can and will, at the end of its life, disintegrate and become reabsorbed into the earth. It’s made almost entirely from the earth, and emphatically for the earth.

The farm Xavier and Damien found, after a long search for a spot within an hour’s drive of the city, is an ancient and portentous site: the Vredefort Dome. It is the planet’s oldest and biggest meteorite impact site. The over 2 billion year old landscape carries the memory of that critical event in the earth’s development that resulted in momentous climate changes (as good a prompt as any to build sustainably).

Xavier, who is originally from Belgium, runs a commercial architectural practice in Johannesburg that is known for pioneering sustainable architecture. The significance of the site (and the opportunity to be his own client), however, inspired him to push the envelope and take “green” architecture to another level.

So, with Damien taking on the role of building contractor, they set about creating an earth house that would push the limits of sustainability and the use of local materials using handmade compacted earth bricks and earth bags, stacked stone and rammed earth.