South African Architectural Record
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SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURAL RECORD THE JOURNAL OF THE CAPE, NATAL, ORANGE FREE STATE AND TRANSVAAL PROVINCIAL INSTITUTES OF SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTS AND THE CHAPTER OF SOUTH AFRICAN QUANTITY SURVEYORS M T im FOR DECEMBER 1019 RESIDENCE IN CYRILDENE, JOHANNESBURG. Jacques Morgenstern, Architect 250 HOUSE FISHER, GREENSIDE, JOHANNESBURG, Axelrod and Siew; Gilbert Herbert, Associated Architects 254 HOUSE RABBIE, GREENSIDE, JOHANNESBURG. Gilbert Herbert, Architect 256 A LETTER FROM ANTHONY CHITTY 259 CONTEMPORARY JOURNALS 262 OBITUARY : Donald Ele Pilcher 264 BOOK REVIEWS 265 NOTES AND NEW S 266 EDITOR VOLUME 34 The Editor will be glad to consider any MSS., photographs or sketches submitted to him, but they should be accompanied by stamped addressed envelopes for return if W. DUNCAN HOWIE unsuitable. In case of loss or injury he cannot hold himself responsible for MSS., photographs or sketches, and publication in the Journal can alone be taken as evidence ASSISTANT EDITORS of acceptance. The name and address of the owner should be placed on the back of UGO T O M A S E L L I all pictures and MSS. The Institute does not hold itself responsible for the opinions 12 expressed by contributors. Annual subscription £1 I Os. direct to the Secretary, GILBERT HERBERT 612, KELVIN HOUSE, 75. MARSHALL STREET. JOHANNESBURG. ’PHONE 34-2921. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: G. J. McHARRY (PTY.), LTD., 43, BECKETT’S BUILDINGS, JOHANNESBURG, P.O. BOX 1409, ’PHONE 33-7505. RESIDENCE IN CYRILDENE, JOHANNESBURG JACQUES MORGENSTERN, ARCHITECT The house stands on a steeply sloping, nearly triangular plot with two of its sides facing streets which meet at an acute angle. The building lines on these two streets are 30 feet and 15 feet from the boundaries respectively. The requirements included three bedrooms, and the total area of the house was to be limited to between 1,400 and 1,500 square feet. The result is a compact plan, very economical in space, with less than thirteen feet of total passage length. The two main bedrooms and lounge are facing North, the dining-room East onto a patio. Folding doors separating lounge from dining-room and hall allow these rooms to be combined into one S large volume when so desired. The space between / transome and ceilings is filled in with a clear glass screen, acting as a sound cut off but providing no visual interruption to the ceiling pattern. north The ceiling in the passage has been lowered to just above the fanlights for better daylight reflexion and less disproportion between height and width. To take ad vantage of the steep site the laundry has been placed below the kitchen and the yard at an intermediate level. 250 LEFT: General view from the North-East. R IG H T : Close up view of the trellis defining the Living Room Zone. N o te the direction of the eaves slatting, echoing the soldier course brick dado. Iivm q root ^ *■ , entrance hall bed rp6m .s. pa»»aq« li*. »• > <!s' 251 SECTIONAL EAST ELEVATION These levels were so calculated that all ground needed for fillings could be obtained from excavations on the site. The house is under tiles and externally fine rough cast plaster has been used in conjunction with 2 inch face bricks. The slats to the eaves are set running at right angles to the walls, thus repeating the pattern of the soldier course brick dado below. The blue black faced brick plinth becomes a 6 feet high wall enclosing the yard on the lower slopes of the site, linking together out buildings and house. The 4 inch square rainwater pipes were concealed by recessing them into the outer skin of the 11 inch cavity wall, then nailing expanded metal onto the wall and across the gap and finally plastering right over. Com plementary tints are used for the colour schemes internally and externally. R IG H T : To the East, the Dining Room opens out onto a patio enclosed on three sides and partly roofed with wired glass on wood rafters, the ‘‘Slasto" wall screens off the low er yard behind. 252 A B O V E : The main entrance. R IG H T : Folding doors with clear glass above between Living and Dining Rooms. PHOTOS BY FRED FISHER AND GILBERT HERBERT 253 HOUSE FISHER, GREEN SIDE, JOHANNESBURG AXELROD AND SIEW; GILBER HERBERT, ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS A long, narrow site, with a twenty-five foot building line, dictated a long narrow plan, with all major rooms facing North, and Dining-room facing East across a Breakfast Porch. A feature of the house is the extended, precast concrete screen, which acts as a lead-in to the entrance, giving definition and direction. Externally it separates entrance porch from loggia, and it continues internally to act as a partition between Entrance Hall and Living-room. Above the lintel over the concrete screen is a light trough, and the ceiling to Living-room and Hall is continuous. Intern ally, the screen is glazed with ribbed glass. There was a natural break in the ground level of the site, with the ground level of the eastern half of the site several feet below that of the western half. It seemed desirable to utilize this change in ground level, and the house has thus been designed partly as a double-storey structure, the lower ground floor containing two garages, a store-room, and a workshop. The servants' quarters and laundry are situated at the back of the house, in an enclosed yard. The house is under slate, and is finished externally A view of the living room, showing the glazed concrete screen in rough cast plaster and face brick. separating living room from entrance hall. 254 A B O V E : The cantilevered staircase linking terrace and garden, necessitated by a sudden sharp drop in ground level. BOSEfTlCNT TO P, L E F T : The honeycomb parapet wall to the breakfast porch. PHOTOS: UGO TOM ASELLI AND GILBERT HERBERT 255 HOUSE RABBIE, GREENSIOE, JOHANNESBURG GILBERT HERBERT, ARCHITECT This is a small house designed to accommodate The resolution of these many different demands in two married couples and two small children. The accom plan form has resulted in a house of T-shape. The cross modation required was thus to include in addition to a piece of the T, parallel to the street, contains the Living Living-room and separate Dining-room, three double zone, with North and East aspects to the Living-room, bedrooms, two of which were to be equipped with built-in and West aspects to the Dining-room. The leg of the wardrobes. T contains the sleeping and service areas, with North The designer of a small house usually faces three aspects to two bedrooms and East to the third. The house major problems: Restriction of area, restriction of cost, is sited quite close to the street, and the main garden and restriction of site. In this particular case building development is to take place on the East. The open control and economic considerations determined the terrace flanking, and forming an extension to, the Living- maximum area of the house to be 1,400 square feet. room, is close to the North boundary of the site, and The accommodation required by the client was five major has been so placed as to obtain an attractive prospect rooms, plus the usual services. To complicate matters, over the adjoining garden. the site itself was a long, narrow one, with a west aspect. While a separate Dining-room was required by the It was considered essential by the architect that the client, it was felt that the cutting up of a relatively small major rooms should be suitably orientated, and his area into separate rooms might lead to a sensation problem was to accomplish this while heeding his client's of spatial congestion. The Living-room, Entrance Hall request that the house should not present a narrow end and Dining-room were thus designed en suite, with elevation to the street. a light wrought iron screen between the former, and 256 A BO V E, L E F T : Looking down the pergola-covered terrace towards the entrance. A B O V E: The bedroom wing, facing north onto the private garden at the side of the house. PHOTOS BY UGO TOMASELLI PLAN AND GILBERT HERBERT 257 A general view of the house: the rough cast walls are a pale green, the pergola facia is painted w hile, and the steel pipe columns are a deep maroon. Below: Two views showing the living area. The fireplace with its raised hearth can be seen on the left, while the photograph on the right is taken from the dining room, looking across the entrance vestibule towards the living room. large sliding doors between the latter, so that, unless however, was not acceptable, and the final solution privacy for dining is required, the three rooms relate embraces a high foundation on the East. The underfloor visually one to the other, resulting in an interrupted vista space, however, has been utilized as a storage cellar, of some forty feet. A sense of spaciousness is conse and has proved a successful disposal spot for all the quently achieved with a relatively economic use of floor flotsam and jetsam which any household seems to area. accumulate. There is a fall from the N.W. corner of the building to The house is of orthodox cavity wall construction, the S.E. of some five feet. The original solution separated with a gable-ended, marseilles tiled roof. The external the Iwo wings of the T, placed each on ground level, finishes are rough cast plaster and dark brindle facebrick, and connected the two with an articulated link containing and internally these facebricks reappear in the Living-room.