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The khoi Khoi Suite (named after the nomads that inhabited the area when the settlers arrived) is styled in a contemporary manner. Pencil drawings dominate the end wall
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"subtle stone and natural materials, earth dyes and fabrics of woven subtlety"
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Latest areas to be refurbished by the hotel’s current designers are three suites of mega scale, in which three different interior designs have been carried out reflecting the historic styles of the area and generating an emerging sense of a new South African contemporary look. This being Africa the landscape is of course outrageously beautiful, vibrant with colour, bird life and a sense of space. The buildings of the hotel are listed as a National Monument, and have been sensitively modernised and added to in creating the 30 suite hotel, but the heart of the hotel is its gardens and trees around which the buildings housing the rooms and public areas sprawl. In the centre of it all, a reminder of a less happy past, stands the ‘slave bell’.
The colonial past is the reason these buildings are here, and this is one of the historic early settler’s farms on the Cape, dating back to the early 17th century. The designers have shown a strong grasp of the history of the architecture, rebuilding faithfully in the techniques of the past. Less sensitive has been some of the interior artefacts, with drawings and sculpture reflecting a treatment of the native peoples that to European eyes is a little less than sensitive.
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The pool is one of the main public areas, and is discreetly tucked away out of view, with its own bar
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The original farmhouse has in part been restored to reflect the past - click to see the original dining areas
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Use of local materials, seen throughout the Western Cape, in the form of native woods, stone, and reed thatches creates vernacular buildings of startling beauty. They do not have grandeur, but the brilliant white of the finishes, the greybrown of the reeds seen against the brilliant blue of the African sky and the orange hues of the sandstone rock of the Cape mountains, the green of crops, grass and trees create a glorious panorama wherever one looks.
Internally the white is continued, and complemented by subtle stone and natural materials, earth dyes and fabrics of woven subtlety, allowing the eye some respite from the brilliance outside. To northern European eyes, where the weather is more variable and the sunlight not as bright (when in evidence), the brightness of the external colours is well balanced by the calm darkness of timber stains in the interiors. The interiors are cool, and flowers are used to provide colour accents against materials chosen for their longevity. Fabrics quickly lose their sparkle in the intense sunlight and colours fade or fail to compete against external colour, and so much is made of woven materials on floors and walls.
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Steenberg
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