FARM FRESH

This contemporary take on a traditional barn structure among the apple orchards of the Elgin Valley makes for an inspiring weekend getaway for a Cape Town family

The Elgin Valley is the apple-growing capital of SA. It’s filled with orchards and cool-climate vineyards, and is surrounded by mountains and nature reserves, including the protected Kogelberg Biosphere. It’s also less than an hour’s drive from Cape Town, which makes it the perfect weekend escape from the city. That’s why hotelier and entrepreneur Jody Aufrichtig chose it for his delightfully eccentric lodge, Old Mac Daddy, where the rooms are luxuriously and creatively converted vintage Airstream trailers.

It seemed so perfect that Jody and his family thought they should have a private holiday home of their own there.

Architect Greg Scott and his team had worked with Jody over the years (Greg designed the main barn-like venue at Old Mac Daddy), so the Aufrichtigs began discussing a weekend bolthole with him.

They’d earmarked a beautiful spot near the farm dam, backing onto an orchard, with views over the water and the valley beyond. “I wanted to be near water, because the birdlife is incredible,” says Jody. “Early in the morning, I watch the ducks landing on the dam.” He and the kids love swimming and canoeing across the dam so the idea of having a house “right on top of the water” appealed to the family. The site they chose faces west, so in the evenings there are beautiful sunsets over the water as the sun dips behind the distant mountains.

Greg had already begun exploring a contemporary barn aesthetic at the main lodge building and was keen to reinterpret and extend the idea. “It’s a very pure architectural form, and if you can stay true to it and put some beautiful punctures and apertures in it, and open up the ends, it’s an amazing way of building,” he says, “and it relates very well to its context.” A barn shape, inevitably, looks right at home in an orchard.

Barns also make for simple, practical construction, especially in remote areas such as Elgin, where you’d want to disturb the landscape as little as possible.

“The steel portal frame is made off-site and can be erected quickly,” says Greg. So that’s what his team did — popped up a steel frame, enclosed it, and clad it in corrugated roof sheeting, layering in modern systems such as solar power to keep its creature comforts sustainable and its ecological footprint small.

Jody Aufrichtig, who owns Old Mac Daddy, a lodge in the Elgin Valley outside Cape Town, built this private holiday home for himself and his family on the banks of the farm dam, backing onto an apple orchard. Its simple barn shape is right at home in the landscape – a valley of orchards and vineyard surrounded by mountains and nature reserves.

Looking from the entrance inwards, the virtues of the simple, consistent palette is revealed. The building structure, legible from the inside because of the pitched ceiling, is subtly articulated in the metal beams which punctuate the timber sheath, adding dynamism and variation.

From the front of the house, the stylised silhouette of its contemporary barn aesthetic is most clearly revealed. The outdoor entertainment area is sheltered from the sun and wind by a blackened wood pergola-style structure.

The structure is clad with roof sheeting common to agricultural buildings in the area. The side facing the dam has a series of box-like windows punched into it, open to the views.

From the main living area, the outdoor entertainment area seems like an extension of the house, continuing the clean lines and simplified minimalist form of the pitched ceiling.

The dining table is an extension of the kitchen unit. The pendant lights are by Foscarini/Diesel Home, the chairs are James Mudge and the “Spin” candelabra is by Tom Dixon.