Amento is a house that starts with an idea about geometry.

The intersection of two perpendicular walls that form a broken cruciform in plan. Formed of white clay brick with a lime mortar, the 700mm thick walls, rise vertiginous against the bordering tree line.

The contradistinction of Amento’s towering walls from the inhabited mono pitches below seems to connect them to a different scale of architectural order. The extension of the walls beyond the inhabited quadrants further emphasizes their conceptual autonomy. They extend as lines into space, the pre-existent remnants perhaps of an earlier, grander expression, opportunistically exploited and re-purposed to accommodate the modest monopitch shelters below.

The functional and spatial programme of the house exists in spite of and because of the superimposition of this geometric template. The four quadrants each have their own functional identity. The north western is master bedroom and boudoir/study, the large south western is the main living area of kitchen, dining and sitting, the south eastern quadrant contains children’s bedrooms and shower-rooms and the north eastern accommodates garage, plant room and utility room.

The extension of the axial walls into the landscape provides each residential quadrant with it’s own particular, framed outlook onto the surrounding garden. The four extended thick diaphragm walls are punctuated by deep portal openings which facilitate an easy circumambulation from each garden to the next.

Internally, the material and colour palette is stripped down to allow the vibrancy of the external natural world to dominate. An umber polished concrete floor anchors walls of pale brick and lime mortar, set against the moiré patterning of Douglas Fir veneered panels. This calm Nordic palette is strategically disrupted by occasional brief outbursts of intense, disruptive colour.

Photography by James Retief