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Heuvelskans Waverley, Bloemfontein, Free State SM!T ARCHITECTS: Architect

Date: 2003 Client: Jan and Petra Smit Type: Homestead Style: Contemporary Status: Extant 2003 SAIA Award of Merit

Award of Merit Citation The House remains one of the intriguing architectural pieces, and when designed by architects for themselves, even more so. If the architects are teachers then the intrigue deepens, for it then becomes a built manifesto. This project responds boldly as a statement of South African suburban domesticity. The spaces accommodate activities of a particular phase of life, while accommodating the natural demands of diverse lives lived in a multifaceted spacial configuration. It is predicted that space allocation and configuration will change as the children grow. This is well catered for in the design. Materials are used directly and express their own character, even showing the palimpsest of their pasts when recycled. Landscape is addressed in its multiple guises - the street is addressed as public domain, where it is abstracted into designed elements, leading to the house as vertical and horizontal interfaces with the aspects of landscape, light, vistas and climate. The house is a manifesto to the judicious use of site, sparing use of materials, and inventive allocation of space as a harmonious ensemble. The project is bestowed a national award of merit. All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.