HUIS HASIE

HUIS HASIE is a low-slung coastal sanctuary, quietly embedded in the dunes of Skulpiesbaai, Western Cape—a luxury beach house shaped by wind, salt, and the soft choreography of dune vegetation. From a distance, it reads less like a building and more like a horizon line: calm, anchored, and deliberate. The brief was intimate and exacting: a home for two owners, their dogs, and a cherished art collection—crafted to feel protective and private, yet perpetually open to sea, sky, and light.

The architectural challenge was not to “claim” the site, but to belong to it.

 

Skulpiesbaai is elemental: shifting sand, relentless coastal glare, and weather that demands honesty from every material. The response is an architecture of restraint—kept deliberately low, stretched horizontally, and softened by planted roof gardens that return the roofline to the landscape. The house settles into the dunes like a gentle burrow: present, but never loud.

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HUIS HASIE is composed as a series of sheltered volumes and courtyards—spaces that temper the climate and slow the pace of living. Deep overhangs and timber-lined soffits create shade and calm. Sliding planes of glass dissolve boundaries where appropriate, while timber screens reintroduce privacy and texture where needed. The result is a home that can open generously to the coastline, then close again with quiet confidence—always composed, always comfortable.

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A defining gesture of the project is its roof oculi—circular apertures that puncture the heavy concrete planes and draw the sky into the heart of the home. These oculuses do more than light rooms; they stage them. Sun tracks across textured surfaces. Shadows sharpen, then soften. Hanging vegetation spills down from planted edges, turning the architecture into a living section through dune ecology. In key moments, the oculus becomes a spotlight—framing artworks, catching the shimmer of water, and making the passage of time feel tangible.

 

Materiality is truthful and built for longevity. Brutalist concrete gives the home its enduring backbone—weight, permanence, and coastal resilience—while warm timber brings tactility and human scale. Stone and textured masonry introduce a grounded ruggedness, echoed in carefully detailed joinery that elevates the raw to the refined. This is where restraint becomes opulence: not through excess, but through discipline—junctions resolved, proportions tuned, and surfaces allowed to age beautifully.

Then, in contrast, comes the project’s unexpected playfulness. The en-suites are like small worlds—Gaudí-inspired, kelp- and coral-referenced grottos carved into the plan. Curved walls, porthole windows, and sculpted ceiling lines introduce a marine softness that feels both imaginative and deeply appropriate to place. These spaces are intimate and sensual, with a tactile richness that turns daily ritual into experience—proof that luxury can be whimsical without losing composure.

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As a home for art, HUIS HASIE is also a curator. Walls are composed as quiet backdrops, openings become frames, and circulation reveals artworks in measured sequence—never cluttered, never accidental. Even the social heart of the house—kitchen, living space, and bar—feels like a gallery you can truly live in: warm, generous, grounded by texture, and animated by carefully controlled light.

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In the end, HUIS HASIE is not a beachfront statement piece—it is something rarer: a coastal refuge that feels inevitable. Understated, unmistakable.

 

An architecture of crafted calm—anchored in the dunes, open to the sea, and built to last.