Knock on wood: a better way to build

In his research over the years, Alexander had become interested in the potential of cross-laminated timber (CLT) as an alternative to bricks and mortar. CLT is strong, sustainably sourced, clean and precise. It lends itself to off-site manufacture, which means he could design a house with components that would be made in a factory and then assembled quickly at its destination with much less mess and fuss, and much more control, than conventional building. Then he discovered that an old architecture school contemporary of his had a furniture factory and had begun manufacturing CLT made from local South African pine in Cape Town, which meant he wouldn’t have to import it. Subsequently, an inquiry from a client who wanted to explore building in a remote location led to, rather than a one-off house, Alexander developing his concept in earnest and formalising it as a business model now called Anima Homes.

When he reached the point at which he was ready to build a prototype, he believed his own home would be the best place to do it. Alexander, his wife Nicole and their two children live in a beautiful old stone house. “The house will be 100 years old this year,” says Alexander. The terraced garden, lovingly landscaped by the original owner nearly a century ago, offered the perfect platform. Though building a traditional garden cottage would never have been a practical possibility, the lightness and “dexterity of the CLT made it a perfect choice for material”, says Alexander. There was a spot with an existing garden gate that could serve as a separate entrance, so they decided to go ahead and build a “new, solid-wood home” as an experiment — a personal test case. The wooden home they built, Alexander figured, might have several potential uses. While he initially had designs on it as a studio for himself and the headquarters for Anima, it’s first use has been as guest accommodation and, when it’s not being used, it’s available to tourists and holidaymakers to rent.

Alexander isn’t keen on representations of pods and tiny homes in splendid isolation, lording over vast tracts of pristine nature. He prefers the idea of “homes being site-specific and informed by their environment”, connecting with it and relating to it more subtly than the typically grandiose fantasy of having it to yourself. Rather than a typical prefabricated pod, Alexander developed a suite of designs with modular sections, so that each cabin could be configured to respond to climate, topography, views, and so on. He sees this flexibility as a “positive way in which settlement can happen”. The aim is for each unit to inhabit its setting “in the best possible way”.

His personal prototype is less a typical unit than an initial “design response”, as he puts it. One of the things that pleases him most is the way his first response — affectionately known as “The Owlhouse” — fits so unobtrusively into the century-old garden terrace. He was delighted to have been able to leave the plants around the house undisturbed, and for installation and construction to have been done and dusted in three weeks. “It’s very respectful of its immediate surroundings,” he says. He chose a 45° pitched roof with large, projective eaves, which resonated with his old stone house. The archetypal “tent-like” shape with its high gabled ceiling allowed for extra space to be created using a standing mezzanine level. Before building it on site, Alexander and the carpentry team built the house in the supplier’s warehouse and tinkered around with the details, trying out variations and modifications until they’d resolved all the details to their satisfaction, before taking it down again and reassembling it on site. “I loved the process,” says Alexander. There was time for detailed conversations about the way something like the cladding turned a corner if you changed the widths of the boards by a couple of millimetres ... really intricate design details that thrill architects. “It’s a world of difference,” he says, recalling practice as a traditional architect. “This was the first time I was able to achieve an aesthetically pleasing, performance-orientated building in South Africa.”

He also loved the idea that while the concept is advanced in terms of its material sustainability and its carbon offset — its solar-energy system provides enough power for the cabin and the main house — and is a forward-looking, future-focused way of building. It embodies something of a return to the craft tradition. While CLT is a new, manufactured product (Alexander acknowledges that there’s “no escaping that it’s an industrial product — made by robots and pressed by machines”), he says there’s a connection to carpentry and the handmade in its assembly, as well as in the protection of the material and its detailing. “It’s more decorative, going back to something that has idiosyncrasies and personality through the use of craftsmanship and carpentry to create character that’s missing from a lot of today’s buildings,” he muses. You can see this in details such as the built-in bat and owl boxes, as well as the weathervane that is there to conceal a joint. However, the unit also allows “inhabitants to use the building as an instrument to learn more about their environment”. It’s another way in which the house enhances or amplifies the experience of nature. (For the same reason, Alexander designed large eaves and didn’t add gutters because he wanted to be able to watch the rain run off the roof in front of the windows.)

He points out that in cabins and summer houses in countries in northern Europe and Scandinavia (where they’ve been building with timber for decades, if not centuries) people tend to use more refined finishes in the interiors. He was so pleased with the mere fact that his was a solid-wood house that he wanted it to look like one. He was so delighted with the craftsmanship, detailing and materiality that he wanted to be able to see it all the time! Despite the pared-back, minimalist approach he’s taken in the furnishings, the warmth and the quietness leave many guests describing it as “cosy”. It’s a little too sleek and refined to qualify as cottagey, but this timber house has left its guests, its architect, the other garden inhabitants, and ultimately the planet happier. www.anima.homes; @anima.homes