Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Infill House / Studio Mas

Architects: Studio Mas
Location: Capetown, South Africa
Project Team: Pierre Swanepoel, Precious Makwe
Interior Décor: Studio Mas
Project Year: 2007
Photographer: Studio Mas
Website: www.studiomas

- 10 September 2015
- Edwin Seda
Selected Works , Editor's Choice , Residential , Contemporary , Contemporary African Directory ,

The lattice work on the Infill houses that permeate the street of the infill house in Capetown is perhaps the first real striking feature of this residential piece by Studio Mas. It is an ambitious design that sort to commence from the premise of box and slowly graduate into a large decorated art piece that could provide a place to live in and experience the elusive Cape sun. This was meant to be comfortable and intimate spaces that slowly integrated the site and made use of the South African common place red brickwork and concrete off shutters.

From the Project Architects:
Infill House, on the slopes of Signal Hill above Bantry Bay in Cape Town, sits on a site that has breathtaking views up the mountain and across the Atlantic. The clients requested a comfortable, functional house for easy-living with a simple and natural exterior that, while timeless, was also daring and unusual. The house sits in harmony with the landscape and its magnificent setting.

The design has two long boxes arranged around a courtyard connected by a circulation block of modular exposed concrete. Sea views are revealed from an extensive entrance hall where a top-lit stairway descends to the two lower levels, becoming lighter and more transparent as solid walls give way to a beautifully crafted oak balustrade and screen. Sunlight and air is controlled passively by way of sliding doors and timber screens. The relationship with nature is enforced by a selection of strip windows that frame views and the courtyard with White Stinkwoods that give testament to the seasons.

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Biovac Centre Phase 1 / Studio Mas
Its a play of solids and voids, of thematic light intonations and a subdued aura of space within the laboratory commissioned by Biovac and implemented by studio mas. The way the project has been incredibly put together was so simple, the final outlook simply blows the mind.

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