It’s a beautiful feeling to awaken in the embrace of a weeping boer bean as the light filters through the canopy of trees growing along a drainage line in the Selati Game Reserve. The roaring of lions has given way to the dawn chorus and as the soft green light brightens, the elements in the room around me materialize, as if by magic.
“Our brief to architect Reiner Förtsch from Förtsch+Associates always involved the idea that the lodge facilitates an experience,” says Rob Snaddon, former MD of H.L. Hall & Sons and Chairperson of the Selati Game Reserve.
Opening the glass doors and rolling down the blinds on the canvas walls, I watch the light in the glade and its effect on the unvarnished wood. I feel the privilege of being a guest in this wilderness; close to the earth, kissed by the wind, nourished by the trees. At a glance they appear to being holding up the roof over my head.
The inspiration for the design of Huja Lodge, which was completed in 2015 as part of H.L. Hall & Sons’ 125 year celebrations, began with selecting the site; and the site is all about the trees: nyala berries, knobthorns, marulas, weeping boer beans and more. “It was round about October when we flew over the reserve in a helicopter and looked for the green spots; an oasis in the grey,” says Snaddon, who managed the build with the MD of the company’s property division, James Aling. The lodge is reserved for the use of the family and forms part of the company’s extensive property portfolio.
While a spot in a riparian zone limits light pollution and provides shade, two factors that were important to the team, it also brings with it a whole suite of responsibilities. “There are ethical and compliance issues to building in ecologically sensitive zones and it was important to us that we address them fully,” says Rob.
“We had a floor plan in mind, we had a location and we knew that we wanted something that would minimize our ecological footprint, but conceptualizing the building was an iterative process,” Rob explains. Visits to other lodges, site visits and discussions with Reiner and an intensive EIA process lasting 18 months resulted in Huja as it sits today, a den of wood and glass and canvas perched lightly on the earth, allowing it to breathe.
“The EIA allowed for a camp constructed largely of temporary structures,” says Förtsch. “Conceptually this translated into a hybrid structure of tented screens with timber posts and beams and a minimum of brick walls. A low sloping sheet metal roof with wide latte overhangs screens the tented structures from the sun.”
With the majority of the structure anchored by wooden stakes sourced from sustainably harvested forests, the concrete work is minimal. The camp is gas and solar powered, with a 10 kilowatt system that “can drive everything except air conditioners and walk-in freezers,” notes Rob. The treated effluent is pumped 100 metres beyond the 100-year flood line by solar pumps.
The layout of the lodge follows the contours of the usually-dry stream and fresh tracks each morning show the leopards, elephants and antelopes that pass by. “It’s a gathering place for family and friends,” says Rob, who believes that the design of the property is conducive to bringing people together around the central living area, while the game moves around them, relatively undisturbed.
The main building consists of two bedrooms, the kitchen, living room, outside patio, boma and pool. Large glass doors open up completely onto the external living spaces. Catching a glimpse of the signature Tony Fredriksson driftwood leopard in the living room, a gift from H.L. Hall and Sons CEO Pete Backwell, it’s easy to imagine its doppelganger slinking through the property as if the walls aren’t there at all.
This effect will only grow with time as the treated but unvarnished wood greys to tone in with the bark of the surrounding trees, just as the large sunscreen overhangs on the building echo the living canopy that envelopes the site. Subtle décor by Chazelle Brink completes the effect, with furnishings that enhance the sense of place, rather than trying to alter it. At certain times of day, you won’t know if you’re inside or out…
For Rob, Huja (which is simply the name on the title deed of the property) symbolizes a particular moment in an evolutionary process – for him, for H.L. Hall & Sons and as a thinking human being. “Having become conscientised to the issues of sustainability, a green approach is a sensible approach to building something in a place we love, that is dedicated to conservation,” he notes.
“I came here with my father as a child, when Selati was still a ranch,” he recalls, reminiscing about the happy childhood hours he spent exploring. Today, he is proud of the shift that has been made from a working farm to a game reserve which he hopes will become one of the foremost conservation research centres in the Lowveld and South Africa.
“There hasn’t been an epiphany or an ‘aha’ moment,” he notes. Instead, Huja reflects the value of the reserve to the Hall family. As their memories root with the trees, they’ll hear the message in their embrace: tread lightly on the earth, for one day you will be all be gone and only the trees will linger on.
