Via: Handmade Charlotte

From 21 – 23 May 2010 the Coca Cola Dome in Joburg will play host to this cutting-edge homes and gardens show, where you’ll have access to everything needed to buy, build and [...]]]> Grand  Designs Live, brought to you by Freeworld and in association with  BBC Lifestyle is South Africa’s newest design  and décor experience.

From 21 – 23 May 2010 the Coca Cola Dome in Joburg will play host to this cutting-edge homes and gardens show, where you’ll have access to everything needed to buy, build and  furnish a house.

There will be multiple inspirational areas on offer, like the Eco House, built in association with Witch Rooms, which is an  innovative, low-energy building designed to meet  passive energy standards .

Celebs and culinary whizzes will also be in abundance, putting together a show to inspire, challenge and impress.

And we’ve grand news for our readers, because Grand Designs Live has a couple of great offers for the friends  of their exhibitors – and that include’s you!:

• For a FREE ticket to the opening day on Friday 21st  May, click here
• For two tickets for the price of one on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd May, click here to make your Computicket booking, and quote ‘GDL Trade‘ to get this amazing  offer!

Visit Grand Designs Live SA for more about this ideas show on a truly grand scale.

I discovered that The Schaffer Residence was built in 1949 by [...]]]> I saw Tom Ford’s movie of the Christopher Isherwood book A Single Man on Friday night and was completely transfixed by the interior of the protagonist’s home. So the minute I got out of the movie, I hunted it down on the Internet.

I discovered that The Schaffer Residence was built in 1949 by architect John Lautner, who was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen Fellows. And it turns out that this architectural gem, following a meticulous restoration, is now for sale. So if you have a spare $1.5m, and the  images of the house are tempting, perhaps the clincher will be the estate agent’s description of how it is “hidden in a wooded valley at the foot of the Verdugo Mountains”, and how “the redwood, concrete and glass residence opens to the oak forest that influenced the form and orientation of the design.” Sold! to the blog editor in Cape Town (in her dreams!).

If you like this home, you’ll really enjoy looking at all the images of John Lautner’s work at Triangle Modernist Houses.

Pics and links found via My Turtleneck.

Chilean architect Antonio Zaninovic worked with the owners, using the footprint of their small home to make [...]]]> The new issue’s cover image is from the story on pages 60 – 69, entitled “Natural Selection”, and I do dearly wish I’d been the one picked to live in this beautiful home on the slopes of Table Mountain.

Chilean architect Antonio Zaninovic worked with the owners, using the footprint of their small home to make one much larger. Re-purposed ceiling rafters, stone excavated on-site, and using the “bones” of the existing house mean that this home is not only beautiful to look at, it also meshes with the principles of sustainability that the owners hold dear.

Visit Antonio Zaninovic’s website to see many more images of the beautiful Liss Springthorpe family home.

Production: Laureen rossouw

Photographs: Mark Williams

On pages 27 and 28 you’ll find [...]]]> In the Revamp issue we feature a grimy corner of downtown Joburg, recently transformed into a cult art project space. Arts on Main, the brainchild of property developer Jonathan Liebmann, is situated beneath a city flyover, where its gritty exterior reveals a beautiful green courtyard planted with olive trees.

On pages 27 and 28 you’ll find out lots more about this bold and inspirational multi-use urban art space pictured here.

production: Nicole Ravenscroft

Photos: Pieter Vosloo

The wall marks the boundary of a coastal development called KaiKai that is [...]]]> The cover of the Celebrate issue bears the intriguing headline: “Discover the most beautiful wall in the world”, and here it is: a Gaudi-esque explosion of colour rising up from the rippled sand of Port Nolloth in the harsh semi-desert of the Richtersveld.

The wall marks the boundary of a coastal development called KaiKai that is growing slowly and carefully, and while that happens, the wall continues to be built, providing employment to locals, as well as teaching the craft of mosaic. But most of all, this object of beauty in the harsh landscape is a labour of love and a source of pride, evidenced in sections that bear the names of 1500 Port Nolloth community members, forever commemorated in mosaic.

Visit the KaiKai website to find out more about this intriguing development.