Jaco Booyens Architect
  • Projects
    • Buffelsdrift Gold Medal Domus International Restoration Awards
    • Contemporary Mud House Buffelsdrift
    • Buffelsdrift Renovation
    • Buffelsdrift Staircase
    • Buffelsdrift Pumproom
    • Subsistance Farm Rysmierberg
    • Damaraland Clay Project
    • Big Tiny House Glencairn
    • Project Phoenix
    • Walvisbay Container Terminal Entrance
    • CAM Plywood Structure
    • Fort Haasbroek Swakopmund
    • Rammed Earth Desert House Swakopmund
    • Off the grid house Prieska
    • New BP Green Headquarters Cape Town
    • African trade mission in Rome
    • Vertical Village on the River Tyber
    • Staircase house du Plessis
    • Olijven Hof brick vault Montagu
    • Cape Town Offgrid Scyscraper
    • Gate to industrial park
    • Furniture design
    • Thesis 1996 - Emergency center for earthquakes
  • Design Philosophy
  • About
  • Publications
  • Sketchbook
Off-grid house Lowerland Prieska

Bertie and Alette Coetzee are farming on a successful Bonsmara cattle stud farm 
Lowerland. https://lowerland.co.za. The farm is situated in a very hot semi-arid 
region in the interior of the Northern Cape on the banks of South Africas biggest 
river the Orange river. It is a family business and Bertie and Alette's passion for 
organic farming give them the opportunity to introduce and test new concepts 
from the worldwide movement called Permaculture with great success. 

They contacted me to design a new family house. In their brief, they asked 
for a building built with stone and clay which are abundant materials from the 
river bank. The building being remote from the existing farmyard with direct 
views onto the orange river had to be off-grid.  A westerly wind blowing daily 
and the west being the direction where heat gain to buildings in desert climates 
is the most problematic lead to the idea to build a large soil berm buffer to the 
west. This would create 2 sides of a courtyard. A digger loader available on 
the farm made this an obvious cost-effective option.  They wanted a root cellar 
and old fashioned passive "koelkamer" cooled by evaporative cooling from 
dripping water from an overhead water tank.

The porch of the house called a "stoep" in Afrikaans had views onto a  fruit 
forest to be.
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S i t e  l o o k i n g  n o r t h  e a s t
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  • Projects
    • Buffelsdrift Gold Medal Domus International Restoration Awards
    • Contemporary Mud House Buffelsdrift
    • Buffelsdrift Renovation
    • Buffelsdrift Staircase
    • Buffelsdrift Pumproom
    • Subsistance Farm Rysmierberg
    • Damaraland Clay Project
    • Big Tiny House Glencairn
    • Project Phoenix
    • Walvisbay Container Terminal Entrance
    • CAM Plywood Structure
    • Fort Haasbroek Swakopmund
    • Rammed Earth Desert House Swakopmund
    • Off the grid house Prieska
    • New BP Green Headquarters Cape Town
    • African trade mission in Rome
    • Vertical Village on the River Tyber
    • Staircase house du Plessis
    • Olijven Hof brick vault Montagu
    • Cape Town Offgrid Scyscraper
    • Gate to industrial park
    • Furniture design
    • Thesis 1996 - Emergency center for earthquakes
  • Design Philosophy
  • About
  • Publications
  • Sketchbook