Synopsis
Driving through one of Pretoria East’s tranquil golf estates with its abundance of lookalike Tuscan villas, the last thing you might expect to come across is a series of shipping containers, embedded into the structure of one of the properties. ‘Shock and surprise’ are two of the reactions of passers-by, says the owner, Sacha Olivier. This bold move, in an aesthetic landscape that borrows more from the design pool of other countries rather than South Africa’s, was the work of Pretoria architect Riaan Visser of +27 Architects/Café. Stepping over the threshold and into the Oliviers’ home is not unlike entering the pages of an HG Wells novel.
With its abundance of dials and knobs, exposed piping and mix of raw metal,
weathered wood and glass, it calls to mind industrialised scenes of a steam-driven lifestyle – a look that was carefully and purposefully edited by Sacha who owns Once Upon a Time, an up cycling business,and her property developer husband, Johan.
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