Opening 2027

A house for two

Set on a rockface above Wilderness

A boutique villa above Wilderness, on the Garden Route of South Africa.

Aerial view over the fynbos hills of Wilderness, Garden Route

Lindl and I spent two years looking for a plot where we can build. We saw hundreds of sites, but when we climbed up this granite rockface above Wilderness, Garden Route, we stopped looking.

We're now building a house for two where you don't check out until 3pm and where one night feels like two.

We'll write about it as we build. What we choose, what costs more than it should, and what we get wrong.

Follow along as we build.

With care,
Steyn & Lindl

Why we're building Stilkrans

The week before Penny presented Stilkrans for the first time, I woke up at night wondering if she'd understood our vision.

When the presentation started, I couldn't tell whose house I was looking at; the shape was unexpected and the entrance unfamiliar.

But as she moved through it, room by room, it became obvious she'd understood exactly what we were trying to make.

From straight lines to curves
Stone stairway winding up through fynbos
Stilkrans video tour

I remember the uneven surface of the sandstone wall I sat on, water falling from a waterfall I built, birds bathing and the grass underneath my feet.

A few months later, we bought a piece of land in Wilderness. With no access road yet, we needed to climb the rock face every time we wanted to visit it. I've stopped counting how many times I've grabbed the fynbos branch to pull myself up.

A story about senses

How you feel the second morning is more important than the first day

Interior explorations by Susan Smit and Penny Vorster