Lanterns create strong drama over the bed at night. Hot water bottles are welcoming in the bed in winter months. Candles are an alternative, softer light and are provided scented in the bathroom area.Click to see the bed by daylight
"drama is provided by the play of light from African sun by day and metal lanterns at night"
Bathtub is concrete formed from the bedhead wall almost orgnanically growing out of the floor. Glass inserts provide colour, Click to see detail of hte bathroom vanity units on the twin wash hand basins
Strong sunlight creates drama by day, the grey of the concrete both restful and the material itself cool. Click to see the exterior of the Olive Grove
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Drama of Light
Concrete is the last material I expect to see as part of the finishes in an hotel room. Oh I know that poured concrete is a modern construction material. I have worked on hotels where it has been a source of problems, seen it used in the construction of bathroom pods, so I'm familiar with its great qualities. But I have never seen it used as a polished finished material, where the construction kind of extrudes itself into making the bathtub, bedhead, vanity unit. Where the material also ingratiates itself as your floor and wall finishes, polished and with inset subtle pieces of coloured glass. Where white paint, white linen and white towels provide an almost ascetic aesthetic against which drama is provided by the play of light from African sun by day and metal lanterns at night
In this quiet corner of Windhoek, Namibia's small town capital, is the misnamed Guesthouse of the Olive Grove. Namibia is the country with almost the lowest population density in the world at roughly two people to every square mile, so creating an oasis in this town is unnecessary when there is so much country side to retreat to. So here we have a sophisticated urban boutique bridging the gap between western sophistication and wilderness that is the attraction in this country. The voter population of 1.18 million people is estimated to have over 110,000 of them working in the hospitality industry. As the country recovers from a brutal war of independence the government leads the conservation work backed by tremendous private effort. Effort that is epitomised not by large institutions but by individual such as the operators of this, one of Windhoek's premier boutiques.
I’d love to have seen more of Windhoek. The remnants of the colonial occupiers in the form of the German architecture, churches and even a castle are apparently remarkable. But this was only a transit point on the way to Review the lodges at Little Kulala, Damaraland and finally Ongava in this beautiful country. The five hour delay endured through Air Namibia robbed me of any time for tourism and my meetings, but I was fortunate that the interim accommodation in the form of this supposed guesthouse that is the Olive Grove set me in one of those places where one doesn’t mind getting stuck for a while.
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