This stunning two-storey contemporary home in Johannesburg, South Africa has been designed by Nico Van Der Meulen Architects, entitled “House Serengeti.” The home’s visual success is due to its mix of earthy textures against high-gloss finishes and raw material against refined elements. According to the architects, the design brief asked for, “a stylish family home with ecologically sound design that maximized indoor-outdoor living to take full advantage of Johannesburg’s legendary eight-month summer. It’s a double-storey home with an open-plan living area downstairs, an upstairs pyjama lounge, a study, and four bedrooms, all of them en-suite.

The three family bedrooms are upstairs, and we positioned the guest room downstairs, separating it from the family’s sleeping area to maximize privacy. The home combines the use of rock, steel, wood and glass, classic modernist design elements re-mixed for new applications. The front of the home features a rusted-steel-clad wall, cleverly mounted on tracks so that it slides back to reveal the garage. Visual continuity is provided through the use of rusted-steel finishing on the entrance and upper-level window frames.

Visual lift is also provided through the use of sculptures by van der Meulen’s brother, Regardt, and artist Ronel Jordaan’s world-famous Merino-wool felt pebbles. Its little visual treats such as these that inform the home’s many X-factors, lifting it above the mundane. Every turn of a corner provides the eye with a discreet visual delight that’s almost Japanese in its subtlety, from the use of raked plaster in a wall application and the hidden-access pantry in the kitchen to the fireplace surround clad in granite panels and the pyjama lounge’s floating ceilings. The home’s lower level interacts with the back garden’s pool and dining terrace through the use of floor-to-ceiling slide-back glass walls that create a seamless interactive space.” Via

Visit the website of Nico Van Der Meulen Architects here.