When the image below hit my inbox I was intrigued: was it a tree house? Was it a lighthouse? Was it a spaceship?
As it turned out, it was (or will be) a wonderfully wacky Kenyan holiday home. I decided to track down the architect behind the mock-up and find out what on earth had inspired such a vision and, a couple of weeks later, I found myself in a swanky London bar with Hogarth Architects‘ Hamish Herford. At points, the conversation became almost as surreal as the design…
How did this project originally come about?
The clients had used us for a side extension on their property in London. They then bought a piece of land in Kenya and commissioned us to design a holiday home for them, which should be completed in around a year’s time.
It’s a pretty interesting design.
Yes – someone once described it as The Gherkin mating with a tree house.
When you first visited the site were you immediately flooded with ideas or did you have to sit down and think hard?
We camped on the site for a week and I went skinny-dipping with the client. But that’s all I did with her! Moonlit skinny-dipping, getting a feel for the site, and there was a lovely Kenyan beach hut up on the top of a sand dune which was a little bit similar to this. I was also inspired by the local architecture: I hadn’t realised until I went out there that Kenya’s quite a Muslim country and African minarets tend to be far more sculptural than the typical Arabic ones.
Was there any reason for building high up?
The surrounding land is very flat and I really like living in towers myself – I own a 22nd-floor flat. From the top of this building you will get amazing views and lovely cool breezes the higher up you go. It’s also a very long, narrow plot of land with just a small slice of beachfront and we didn’t want to block the view from the back of the site. If we’d built the whole thing at ground level the view would have been completely blocked. And I suppose on a more basic level there’s the architect and his tower, his ego, his sexuality, and I suppose you could say there’s a sort of female/male thing going on… but I wouldn’t dwell on that too much!
Righto… So other than the pool there’s nothing at ground level at all?
We’ve actually designed a ground-hugging house as well for the client’s elderly mother, who would struggle with the stairs. We’ve called it The Butterfly House because we’re going to fill it, and the garden, with butterflies.
Does the client’s mother have a particular penchant for butterflies?
Not really – I just liked the idea of it myself… But there are a lot of butterflies in that region of Kenya and it seemed like quite a nice idea. I thought maybe she could get involved in a small breeding programme or something like that.
The drawings give the complex quite an ‘adventure playground’ look.
The client has four children and it turns out they wanted a really dangerous holiday home… Not really, it’s reasonably safe. Actually that’s not very good is it! The only dangerous bit would be jumping off the balcony into the pool. It’s definitely been designed as an adventure playground, a sort of Robinson Crusoe holiday home that keeps the kids entertained. They can use the building as a climbing frame.
So other than good old-fashioned fun, what were your priorities here – aesthetics or eco stuff?
A bit of both. Green architecture on its own can be fairly dull. I always think there should be poetry and beauty in something and you shouldn’t really be too aware of the environmental side, it should just be a natural part of the building. So we do have a south-facing roof for solar panels, and the walls are very thick so as to insulate the house from the heat because the property isn’t air-conditioned.
Do you plan to use local materials?
Yes – while using coral doesn’t sound very ‘eco’, there was already coral block on the site so we’re going to recycle it and use it in the building. All the wood is local, as is the lime render, which will allow the building to breathe.
Did you have to take security issues into account when designing the property?
There’s a small security issue with roaming animals and also with the local people. You can very easily secure a tower like this – plus they employ tribesmen to patrol at night; they wander around with spears.
Cripes. What has been the most challenging aspect of the project so far?
Communicating with the builder! He’s an English builder, fairly rough and ready… He doesn’t like architects. He seems to think: why does a client need an architect? Just draw it on the back of an envelope and that’ll be fine. There was a bit of a standoff when I first got there but we worked it out in the end.
How much is it costing the client?
The land cost about £100,000 and it will cost the same again to build. In the UK it would cost about £250-300,000. Labour’s very cheap out there…
Hamish Herford is a director at Hogarth Architects.
Interview by Ele Cooper
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