Cal Kempton Park is a contemporary residence situated in Johannesburg, South Africa, designed by Nico van der Meulen Architects. The client wished to have a generous-sized family home with separate living quarters their adult son and two daughters. The property is a private estate, so the house was designed to be open to the street, with a glass link across a koi-pond as the entrance. This also separated the guest wing with the son’s bedroom over it from the main house, creating almost a cottage, consisting of the gym, guest suite, double garage, the son’s lounge/study and his suite.

The crescent shape of the stands determined the shape of the house towards the street, as the architects tried to keep the house as far south on the stand as possible, because the stands were fairly shallow towards the north. To get enough light into the house, they used double volume windows, deeply shaded to only allow winter sun into the living areas. By using a huge internal balcony upstairs and an atrium they were able to give the two daughters two north facing suites and lounge, with balconies both on the north and south side. The home blurs the boundaries of indoor and out through the use of sliding/folding doors, enabling the lanai/bar and family/breakfast nooks to be open to the pool and internal atrium.

Photos: Courtesy of Nico van der Meulen Architects