GREY GREEN BLUE

PERCHED ON A ROCKY PROMONTORY IN THE SOUGHT-AFTER SEASIDE TOWN OF PLETTENBERG BAY, A CURVACEOUS CONCRETE RESIDENCE ECHOES THE HARD AND SOFT LINES OF ITS EVER-CHANGING VISTA.

- ANNETTE KLINGER

Tai Chi for 30 years, and in it, we say, ‘Stand like a mountain, flow like a river,’” says architect Paul Oosthuizen. Yes, he’s passionate about the Chinese martial art, but in this particular instance, he’s using the Tai Chi principle to illustrate his motivation behind the design of a very special beachfront property.

Receding into a thicket of milkwood trees on a rocky outcrop that runs down into the Keurbooms estuary in Plettenberg Bay, the house in question is undeniably sculptural, with an interplay of curved and angular lines, and the raw materiality of a concrete finish.

“The concrete plays on the edge of that seemingly impossible fusion of soft and hard,” says Paul. “You want to be threatened by it because of its industrial, cold persona, but the way it’s been used here, those lines, it’s really seductive.”

There were also practical considerations behind Paul’s decision to use off shutter concrete during construction. “What happens in a number of places is that the wall becomes the roof through a curve, so you don’t work with too many elements. It’s as if you’ve carved the building out of something,” says Paul. “There’s an honesty to off-shutter concrete – it’s saying, ‘This is real.’”