INTRODUCTION
The house is in Hawaan, the premier gated Estate in Umhlanga, an upmarket suburb of Durban and situated behind a coastal dune forest on the North Coast of Kwazulu Natal.

Published in Habitat magazine in 2016.

CLIENT WISHES
A house with as much transparency as could be achieved in an urban gated estate where, despite plantings, houses are close together.

This together with the open plan living, public and private spaces would permit the inside and outside to merge.

Client is a local developer, who wished to have his new home illustrate the type and quality of homes in his developments.

CLIMATE & ENVIROMENT
The property experiences a sub tropical climate.

The forest in front is a nature reserve where animals are able to move freely into the Estate.

SITE & VIEW
The designed house is situated on a double site which is flat and set back from the front row which fronts directly onto the forest.

Panoramic seaviews to the south and east are possible from the second floor.

The sites are rectangular in shape with houses on all six sides.

The town planning scheme allows a maximum of two storeys above existing natural ground.

The coverage and FAR are 35%.

The Estate guidelines require the second storey not to exceed in area more than 50% the ground floor and the width of the top floor not to exceed more than 50% of the width of the property.

Both are meant to allow properties behind to enjoy some seaview.

The roof height was restricted to 7.6 metres following the land slope. The Estate architecture was established by SAOTA following the contemporary style of their work on the Atlantic seaboard in Cape Town.