Case study — Ludwig Hansen Architects · Mpumalanga
Bergplaas
Bergplaas Residence · Ludwig Hansen Architects
Draft — your turn. This “My part” blurb is my placeholder. Replace it in your own words with the specifics of your role you want front and centre — then delete this note.
This one was mine to carry on the ground. Lead architect and site manager — running the drawings and engineering consults, sourcing materials and the transport and logistics to reach a remote site, and negotiating and leading a local team of eight to twelve. From documentation to the last detail on site.
Bergplaas sits on a remote conservancy between Lydenburg and Dullstroom in Mpumalanga. The project retrofitted an existing 243 m² homestead and added 182 m² of new building — an independent residence, an art studio and two service buildings — with the outdoor rooms, the stoep, the outdoor kitchen and the courtyards treated as the heart of the house.
The existing envelope, roof and perimeter walls were re-clad in steel sheeting — a weather-hard skin that sharpens the architecture against the landscape, set off by the weathered stone and brick of the old walls.
Because the site is remote, the build ran on local knowledge and local hands. A team of eight to twelve shared what they knew about the materials and the mountain conditions while learning contemporary methods — an exchange that made the work more than a contract, and left the architecture deeply rooted in its place.
The house was later published as the “Hill House on Bergplaas” in House and Leisure’s Cocoon edition.
