The Outpost
Makuleke Territory, North Kruger National Park
Enrico Daffonchio And Associates
Enrico Daffonchio creates an architecture that treads gently in the bush, while giving visitors an intense experience of the wilds.
By Sarah Amelar
Perched among elephants, lions, leopards, zebras, and giraffes, in the vast bushveld of South Africa’s Kruger National Park, The Outpost, a new lodge, needed an environmentally responsive architecture with an atmosphere of relaxed comfort in the wilderness. But the creation of this hotel also involved a far taller order—to help right one of the wrongs committed in the Apartheid era.
In 1969, the Apartheid government had forcibly removed the Makuleke people from their ancestral land, and incorporated that more-than-59,000-acre tract into Kruger National Park. After the restoration of democracy to South Africa, in the 1990s, the tribal community brought a legal claim, resulting in the return of their land. By the conditions of the agreement, the property would remain in its pristine, undeveloped state—not occupied by the community—except the Makuleke would hold a concession on twelve lodges to be built and operated here in accordance with the park’s environmental guidelines. With input from the Makuleke, private developers would commission the hotels. But the labor force engaged to construct, staff, and manage them would come from the tribal community, which would collect concession rental fees for 30 years. At the end of that period, the Makuleke would own the lodges.
The Outpost, the first of the lodges erected in this northern region of the 6.2-million-acre park, had a modest brief: a dozen freestanding units (each accommodating two adults), and a main building with reception, dining, and lounge areas, as well as an outdoor swimming pool. The idea was to set the architecture subtly into the landscape, providing certain comforts and luxuries, while opening the guests to an intense and direct experience with the natural surroundings.
The client engaged Italian-born architect Enrico Daffonchio, who had demonstrated his commitment to sustainability and building minimally in the bush with his small museum at a UNESCO archaeological site near Johannesburg.
The site for The Outpost was challenging: Three-quarters-of-a-mile long and a mere 20-feet wide, the land forms a ridge, dropping off at a 60-degree angle toward a plain with a river meandering through it. Daffonchio used the abrupt topography to dramatic advantage. Daffonchio scattered the 12 units along the site, connecting them by raised walkways with teak decking that conceals all the service lines: plumbing, electricity, and telephone. Leaving the terrain equally undisturbed, the buildings also stand on stilts, “like the white African fig trees growing out of the rocks,” as Daffonchio envisioned them.
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Formal name of project:
The Outpost
Location:
Makuleke Territory, North Kruger National Park
Gross square footage:
23,000 sq. ft.
Total Construction Cost:
$100,000 million
Owner:
Lodges Of Manyeleti
Architect:
Enrico Daffonchio and Associates
P.O.Box 3504 Parklands
2121 Johannesburg South Africa
+27 11 447 8118
EMAIL sadac@iafrica.com
www.daffonchio.co.za
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