The first owners of Serene Estate, Hans and Olga started their discovery of South Africa in 1995. They bought the property in the winter of 2003 in St. Lucia.
Their idea was to build a small scale upmarket accommodation using modern minimalistic architecture in an African context. They designed a concept, together with a young architect from The Netherlands. The program for the design was an accommodation for 4-5 guest rooms, a separate private house and sufficient facilities for both. It started with a more cubic architecture, later on shaped into (bent) New Forms (Nouvelles Forms). You can see that examples were used of the Bauhaus period and Le Corbusier.
Finally, 3 buildings, a one storey base at park side/level and two unequal 2 storey buildings at the front side were designed. The introduction of roof gardens was done to achieve high quality landscaping. The provisional result was this 3D simulation.
In this model the 3 elements are in a spatial balance:
The 3D design was leading during the whole design process. After acceptance of the concept, the following step was the production / design of the detailed drawings. The formal approval of the plan was on the 1st of April 2006.
The start of the building process was in August 2006. The plan was to phase the whole project in 3 parts:
Phase 1: 4 guest rooms at park level, back and roof gardens including a swimming pool; using the existing house as long as possible
Phase 2: demolishing old house and extension, erecting a big retaining wall, double garage, corridors, storage rooms, and laundry
Phase 3: building new house, central entrance, lounge and guest room first floor, side gardens, and parking area
Hans’s wide experience in building processes, constructions and design, as well as the passion to create an architectural gem ensured the success of the whole project in less than 4.5 years instead of the planned 2 years, achieving more than 85% of the original concept.
The first step was demolishing the 3 garages and the apartment to create room and access for the building of the 4 guestrooms at park level in the back garden, bordering the wetlands park. They chose for compacting of the subsoil advised by the structural engineer. The result was fabulous, the load capacity of the compacted sand foundation was sufficient to carry heavy 2 or 3 storey buildings.
The next step was to erect the walls for the 4 rooms. The design of the roof slabs is very particular: to be used as underground of roof gardens, it needed a heavy construction for gardens with 60 cm subsoil and a fish pond. For architectural reasons, the concrete beams are not visible in the guest rooms; they are fully integrated in the roof gardens. The whole project has been built without a crane. A lot of manpower was needed for scaffolding, ladders, bridges and ramps to get access.
Remarkable elements in the guest rooms are the ‘sun catchers’ to bring day-light in the rear of the guest rooms, using coloured tubes as extra theme at night.
Finishing this phase, the internal constructions of the guest rooms (plastering, sanitary, flooring, painting, furniture etc.) was decisive for the final visual and functional quality. All furniture has been exclusively designed. The landscaping of the back gardens including the big pool was the finishing touch of this phase. Starting point was to integrate the adjacent park with the back gardens and to create an open space to spot animals (from birds, antelopes to hippos).
To create enough room for facilities (storage, garages, small work shop, laundry and ironing room), more sand had to be dug out and a huge 4 meter heavy reinforced concrete retaining wall had to be built at the front side at street level.
Completion of phase 2 was in 2008. Two guest rooms and later on a third room were available to start the guesthouse at a small scale to gain the necessary experience in the hospitality. Till the completion of phase 3 including the new professional kitchen and the lounge / guest terrace in 2010, breakfast was served in the gazebo.
At that time, a suitable name for the new accommodation was chosen: Serene Estate, to express what is offered to our guests, real serenity.
The last part of the process was for several reasons the most difficult one. To design in detail the complex roof construction of the 2 buildings was complicated: walls under several angles, roof in one direction bent, in the other direction under an angle, complete new roof construction with hidden gutters and the lack of a crane.
A concrete portal construction had to be built to resist heavy wind loads directly from the ocean (cyclone proofed), starting at the lowest foundation. It meant to connect this portal with the retaining/ foundation and pour in parts till the highest point about 13 meters high.
The roof construction consists of a carrying structure of laminated beams (pine) and main bent laminated beams, closed with a sandwich insulated roof construction and a finishing of successively waterproof natural stone shingles. The big main beams have been installed by hand (each about 700 kg) and needed 10 -12 people to put the beam in the brackets at the top of the walls.
The buildings, the gardens and parking area at the street side were finished in 2010. A huge shade sail was designed and installed to cover the parking area. The main gate refers to the colours used as a theme in the rooms and the composition is also a wink to the famous Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan.
An extension to the lounge and professional adjustable louvers were added in 2012, to better accommodate the guests.
After reading this story, we hope you will enjoy your stay even more. The beautiful building with its specific architecture, the well-designed gardens, and the whole setting is truly unique.