hospitalitystyle.com

(2008 November December) posted on Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:11pm EST
Designers had to move heaven and a lot of earth to let travelers live out their fantasies among French antiques or in a Zulu camp at Douw Steyn’s South African retreat.

By Jenna Glatzer

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Like most new-money billionaires, controversial insurance magnate Douw Steyn makes things happen. It's how he built Auto & General insurance in his native South Africa from the ground up, and what brought success when he expanded to the U.K. with Budget Insurance. And it's why he permits himself the finer things. As someone who lives large, he has a taste for exclusivity and something of a soap-opera personal life that's provided tabloid fodder. In true Steyn style, compromise was no part of the design brief to convert his Waterberg Mountain estate into the luxury Shambala Game Reserve, even if nature and logistics stood in the way.

Len Lategan, Shambala's staff architect and principal agent during the project, says Steyn had very definite ideas about the reserve's redesign. Mere topography wasn't allowed to intervene. The buildings had to blend into the scenery so as not to interrupt the environment's natural beauty. "For example, he wanted big trees to be positioned in front of the main lodge to hide it as much as possible," Lategan says.

Accomplishing that required ingenuity. There was little soil on the rocky hillside where the main building, Steyn Lodge, is sited. That meant trees could not be planted directly in the ground, so workers had to build gigantic planter boxes. "An enormous amount of concrete and steel went into them to achieve the strength to hold all the necessary soil and trees," says Lategan.

Steyn's brief for the seven French-inspired guest chalets was equally specific: Don't ruin the skyline. Lategan and his team kept the roof-lines low and nestled the thatched-roof guest quarters into a small hill behind the main building. That solution does more than preserve views of this pristine landscape; it affords a level of privacy Shambala's high-spend market demands.

Quantifying distances and areas in the bush is a unique challenge, says managing operator Tj Steyn, Douw's son. Building in harmony with the environment, in this case, meant literally measuring rocks and trees and working around them. "This is the reason many contractors don't like to work from a plan in the bush. They need to be as flexible as the terrain is varied."

Of course, working amidst 30,000 acres of land that's home to elephants, lions, rhinoceros, leopards and Cape buffalo can also be awe-inspiring. Lategan says his favorite part of the project was collaborating with world-renowned landscape architect Patrick Watson based in Johannesburg. Watson's challenge was to make Steyn Lodge blend back into the bush after all the destructive building activities were completed. To that end, he planted thousands of indigenous plants of all sizes. "Patrick Watson makes magic," Lategan says. 

Working with the terrain was definitely the biggest hurdle in this design project, says Lategan. But transporting materials to a site he terms "in the middle of nowhere" and bringing in enough power also sparked some brainstorming sessions. "We installed a step up/step down transformer scenario, with a cable in between running over rocky terrain for about 1.8 miles from the nearest Eskom [South Africa's largest electricity provider] supply point. We also had to use a diesel-powered back-up generator setup with equal capacity."

 

From Indigenous Splendor to French Charm

The interiors embody Steyn's tastes in the same unapologetic way. According to his son Tj, the elder Steyn has always loved French antiques. He chose the French Provincial interior design for the main lodge and chalets to evoke a "homey" feeling of comfort and relaxation, as opposed to opulent luxury. His aim was a kind of elegance that didn't stop guests from feeling free to put their feet up after a day on safari. To make sure the lodge struck that balance, interior designer P.J. de Kock, director of Blacksmith Interiors, Johannesburg, sourced the antiques but deferred to Steyn for final approval. 

To ensure privacy, Steyn Lodge takes only one booking at a time, whether a group or a single person. As a result, the sense of arrival is more like visiting friends than checking in.  From the outside, the lodge looks "insignificant," says Lategan, "but on entry, it opens up room by room, inviting you to sit or lie down and relax. The house was designed from the inside out, in cooperation with the client." 

Where to draw the line between a genuine "in the bush" experience and luxury accommodations in the main lodge and chalets was an area of discussion. "We decided that a few luxuries were necessary to make overseas guests feel comfortable: Internet, air conditioning, a gym and so on," says Tj Steyn. "But if guests would rather feel lost in their surroundings, they can move to the Zulu camp." 

That camp reflects Douw Steyn's connoisseurship of African arts and crafts. Originally built as a bush camp for the owner and his friends, its eight two-bedroom thatched straw huts follow classic Zulu styling. Traditional baskets and carving adorn the interiors. But not all modern amenities are banned: Full shower facilities are available in each hut.  

The huts' most unusual design feature is their use of reinforcing steel as a frame, which allows the thatch covering to mask the structural elements hidden within. "The idea of a structural steel cage was based on the construction techniques used for Zulu huts, which have laths planted into the ground and woven diagonally," says Lategan.

Eco-friendly solutions are used on the reserve whenever possible. A huge, solar-powered electric fence protects the animals and alerts Shambala control center if breached. Roads are built of smooth, natural materials, and the Douw Steyn Dam meets the irrigation and plumbing needs of the reserve while improving river flow conditions and creating a beautiful waterfall effect. 

Calling this the opportunity of a lifetime, Lategan completed this project with a lesson learned: "The best way to conquer an enormous challenge is bit by bit and with good planning. This way, nothing is too big."