The Green House, Cradle of Humankind, Gauteng

Ten years ago, when legendary landscape architect Patrick Watson was invited to create Reflection - one of South Africa’s most ambitious landscapes set in the Cradle of Humankind just half an hour north of Johannesburg - he knew it would become an all-consuming passion. Africa’s most famous heritage site, steeped in archeological history, was the perfect home for a botanical ‘waterscape’ of epic proportions. The project was a collaborative partnership with Iwan Roux, founder of Rekopane Landscaping, whose striking home, The Green House, was designed and built on the six-hectare property just over 20 years ago. Together they have made this dream project come to life, starting with a pool that became a dam … and then evolving into an intricate network of dams, pools and ponds. In the process, ancient rock formations were revealed, dams were filled by a natural spring and birds and wildlife have thrived.
Today, Reflections is one of Johannesburg’s most desirable events and wellness venues surrounded by one of the most peaceful yet complex botanical waterscapes in the world. Calm lakes, meandering streams, babbling springs and natural waterfalls, Japanese-inspired rills, water staircases and meditative pools are now at the heart of this UNESCO-protected Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site with its riverine woodland of Celtis africana (white stinkwood) and Combretum erythrophyllum (river bushwillow), some over 300-years-old.
To this day, The Green House remains the home of the Roux family and the base of Rekopane Landscaping. Inspired by the vernacular of greenhouses, its contemporary architecture is low-slung and sensitively integrated into the landscape with muted interiors complementing stone detailing and glass corridors allowing seamless connection with the outdoors. House and Leisure magazine, who recently featured the property in their article ‘The Green House’, aptly described it as a ‘high-tech shed-inspired home’, yet there’s a glamour and sophistication that combines the best of an ‘agricultural style that connects the landscape back to one of its architectural relics - an original 1800s farm cottage’ and to the family story. This is indeed a story of land art, of engineering, of nature. As Via TV’s Tuin Toere programme recently commented, ‘this restfulness cannot be bought with money’. It is simply unique. For more information, please contact Gill Siebert [e-mail] [phone]