Michele Sandilands
Who Principal of Michele Sandilands Architects. Work and home Sandilands’ firm is passionate about education and sustainability. It recently won a 2013/14 Corobrik-SAIA Award of Excellence, and was nominated for the prestigious Afrisam Award for Sustainability. This was for its Unisa Phase 2 Campus project, built using local materials and labour. Sandilands lives in the forests of Newlands with her husband, Roelf, an industrial designer and inventor, and their daughter, Anna. Her stepson, Jacques, lives in Johannesburg. bono to communities in need of architectural work, and makes itself available to assist in the upliftment of disadvantaged communities. Greenwashing is everywhere, but building buildings using local materials, skills and the latest technology to decrease energy usage has always been second nature to our practice. The architect who changed my life is Gawie Fagan. He has not fallen prey to high fashion and instead assembles and crafts his buildings with real cognisance of the local ways. We live in one of his houses; it’s probably the greatest compliment I can pay him. My style is pretty eclectic. I love the old, the really old – full of age and character. But I also love the modern, engineered and clean-lined, such as the buildings and furniture of Mies van der Rohe. Of course, I love all things from the mid-century modern period, such as the artefacts, buildings and furniture of Alvar Aalto. I can’t do without my morning coffee (it has to be the best available!); as well as the wet nose of our Africanis, Aero, waking me and the soft, mottled pink belly of our bull terrier, Charley. My home is filled with sunshine, loads of books and souvenirs from our travels. In summer I love to walk in the forests around our home, but best of all being tumbled around by the waves at our beach cottage, followed by an ice-cold outdoor shower in summer, or a hot shower under the stars in winter. I love to garden with succulents. I love their geometry and architecture, and the fact that you can cultivate these resilient “pass-along” plants from a simple cutting. I also love jazz, particularly contemporary African jazz. Anything that Richard Nwamba plays on his radio programme. Surprisingly, I don’t own a flashy car. I tried it briefly – it was my “mid-life crisis” – but now I have reverted to an older Land Rover that can get messy and scratched. I can sleep in it at AfrikaBurn. I love to eat all things exotic, but particularly my father’s Indian-style curry. He was taught by a man in Zambia and passed it on. I make a mean curry.