This sleek modern home was designed by Cimato Moroldo Architects with interiors by ARRCC, located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The client is an international businessman who wished to have a home that personally expressed him, with his passion for African art and affinity for entertaining. Design studio OKHA was responsible for the stylish contemporary furnishings and objets d’art throughout the interiors.
“This house had to be as multi‐functional as possible, so that it could adapt to family holidays, feasts with friends, and more formal moments when hosting executive guests,” states ARRCC director Mark Rielly. The designers achieved this by creating clean, uncluttered lines and open spaces throughout this five‐bedroom home, while linking spaces that could be used simultaneously.
Project Team: Architects: Cimato Moroldo Architects / Interior Design: ARRCC / Interior Decor: OKHA
The home is entered by way of a concrete bridge set over an inviting water feature that leads to glass doors, which opens to reveal a double-volume foyer. The interior provides a stark contrast with the gray walls of the exterior facade. Inside you will find clean white surfaces and luminous living spaces. The open layout and white walls serves as the perfect backdrop to showcasing the homeowner’s impressive art collection. It also serves as the perfect environment to introduce furnishings with unique personality.
“The home offers a gallery‐like feel, while still maintaining the casual comfort of a living environment,” states the interior designer. Greeting visitors in the entryway is a brass‐clad Solar Mirror that was designed by Adam Court of OKHA. It’s reference to the cosmos that connects the universe adds to the welcoming visual language.
Integrated into the entrance hall is a graphic wooden screen, offering a glimpse of the living areas beyond. The first floor encompasses the dining room, home bar, cinema, formal lounge, family room and kitchen. The entrance also captures pops of greenery from the garden and patio beyond.
The screen not only delineates spaces, but also creates a link to the open plan of this home. “The screen was inspired by the work of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and adheres to the interior’s philosophy of natural, simple, bold elegance,” states the interior designers.
What We Love: This sleek modern home offers sumptuous living spaces that are perfect for entertaining in style. The clean, crisp interior palette provides the perfect backdrop to showcase modern works of art. We are loving how the artwork gives subtle pops of color throughout. Designer furnishings, accessories and light fixtures adds to the overall appealing aesthetic of this impeccable home.
Readers, what do you think of this home? Would this be your ideal living environment or is there something you would have liked to have seen done differently with the design? Please leave your thoughts in the Comments!
Above: The home bar portrays a personality all its own, featuring a David Weeks hanging mobile chandelier presiding over the double‐volume space. A highly textured gray crystallite wall visually delineates the space, while bringing an element of the dark exterior walls into the home.
Above: The dining room creates instant attraction with its copper PH Artichoke lamps by Poul Henningsen for Louis Poulsen, reflecting mahogany Mojo candlesticks on the dining table. These, along with the carved tribal-figures standing in front of the faceted mirror, form part of the owner’s African art collection, curated here in such a way that they bring personality to the dining area.
Above: The family room is more casual in its function, yet its decoration was carefully considered. The coffee table was custom designed by OKHA, featuring powder‐coated steel legs with acid‐etched and sand‐blasted marble tops. The circular spheres merge together, allowing the contoured sofa to mimic their fluid edges. “Maintaining the muted color palette of the home, each item of furniture is expressed as an artwork of high quality refinement – a nod to OKHA’s respect for traditional craftsmanship and material”, states the design studio’s director, Adam Court.
Above: The kitchen is set adjacent to the family room, offering a monochromatic, functional design, with only the necessary equipment in sight. All peripheral elements are cleverly tucked away through careful design considerations.
Above: The formal lounge showcases OKHA’s clean‐line, pure‐form furniture pieces, creating an environment of easy‐living elegance that epitomizes African luxury. Two large‐canvas artworks hold the room together, accenting its lines and forms. Charged with poetic mystery, the subtly colored triptych by South African Penny Siopis offers an element of movement in the otherwise formal space, while the stronger lines in the work by Burundi‐born Serge Alain Nitegeka offer a dynamically bold and overtly graphic attraction. “The tension between these two works enliven the room,” states the interior designer.
Above: The garden, deck and splash pool offer an entirely alternative living environment, with dining, lounging and barbecuing needs all catered for through the clever layout of tables, sofas and deck chairs. “By creating entertainment pods outdoors, we’ve cosied up the deck, allowing the owner to entertain friends and family in a very unique way,” states the interior designers.
Above: The upstairs landing further conveys the artistic bend of this interior, a Big Shadow standing lamp by Marcel Wanders for Cappellini and collage artwork by Asha Zero filling the volume that leads to the bedrooms.
Above: The upper level en‐suite bedrooms offer individualized comfort, each one has been furnished with a different accent color. In the master suite, a painting by Conrad Botes brings brightness to the predominantly grey room. Textures of wood, marble, wool and ceramic further enliven the bedroom. “Aside from being a space for entertaining, this is a house in which to lay back, relax and just enjoy being home,” states the interior designers.
Photos: Elsa Young
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