Eco Design Architects & Consultants

21/08/2025

07/07/2025

As architects, to create something truly ecological, we are dependent on a visionary brief and the faith and determination of our clients.
This off-grid, rammed-earth, timber and stone "House of Dragons" complete with earthen floors, planted roofs and a bio-pool was just such a project.

24/10/2024

After our old website was repeatedly hacked, we are pleased to announce that we have re-launched our newly revised and updated website: www.ecodesignarchitects.co.za

Eco Design - Architects & Consultants Green Architecture is not a style, trend or a vernacular and neither is it new. At its core is the principle of respect and caring for the earth.

05/03/2023

The sweeping views from House Klipspringer are uninterrupted with any handrails, as the bio-pool planter is extended in front of the sunken lounge area that drops away below the outside dining veranda space.

Jerome Davies of Ecopoolssa consulted on the details of the bio pool filter system which uses plants and gravels to filtrate the water rather than having a conventional salt or chlorinated system, while the client did the planting.

Credit: Photo by Jordana Morgan

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15/02/2023

The recessed lighting over the antique Indian door of House Klipspringer celebrates the drama of the entry space and what lies beyond.
The roof space opens up to the light and view, while wrapping around to form a shaded U-shaped courtyard.
The open plan living space opens out onto a bio-pool and veranda spaces with outdoor dining and sunken lounge all oriented toward the south facing views of the Blyde River Canyon mountain range and river below.
The main structure is juxtaposed with rafters & ridge beams of supporting a

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04/02/2023

The entry pathway winding to the front door of the house, leads one from the parking area to the main house and has been carefully designed to nestle between the existing trees and rocks of the site., while its natural materials, with stonework, rammed earth walling and planted roofing, help the house blend into the landscape.

24/01/2023

Photos of the outside dining area of House Klipspringer under construction.

19/01/2023

House Klipspringer, demonstrates a combination of strategies to achieve in a hot bushveld climate. Some of the thinking to achieve this were:
-the use of materials with high thermal mass such as the and
-an insulated , which also helps reduce the heat island effect while providing evaporative cooling along with the adjacent
-high volume living spaces which create a stack effect to draw the heat upwards as well as extra shading around the outside living space as well as
-orientating the house towards the south, away from the heat of the harsh north sun.

12/09/2022

JNA Roofing's photos from the site of House Klipspringer, start to show how the capture the expanse of views from the site.

08/09/2022

House Klipspringer's home is busy constructing its structure.
JNA Roofing and their engineer Arbrie Visagie have done a fantastic job of constructing the timber roof structure, which consists of boron-treated eucalyptus timber squared-off posts and timber trusses supporting the rafters on the

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07/09/2022

House Klipspringer is designed to respond to its bushveld landscape and stunning views of the adjacent river and distant Bylde River Canyon mountain range.
These photos show the stabilized rammed earth construction with a stone-walled base starting to take shape.

29/04/2022

In 2020 there was a fire at the Guga S'thebe Cultural Center Theatre building in Langa, Cape Town. The theatre had been designed and built by German architecture students from the University of Duesseldorf in collaboration with Carin Smuts of CS Studio.

With a large oversailing timber structure and metal roof covering, the walls were built from stacked containers that were insulated with 100mm thick pre-fabricated light clay straw panels, which were clad externally with 2nd hand fruit pallet boards, lapped vertically.

While the fire destroyed over half the roof, despite the intensity of the blaze, only the tops of the timber-clad light clay panel walling were damaged, as due to the excellent heat resistance they simply charred and actually helped stop the blaze from spreading giving time for the firefighters to do their work.
In 2021 Grinker Contractors were contracted to replace the roof and Eco Design was engaged as specialist sub-contractors to re-make and replace all the damaged light clay straw panels.

Led by Andy Horn of Eco Design and with the assistance of his team as well as Clint Abrahams of the UCT school of architecture and some volunteer students, together with some labour employed from the local area, the frames were remade and light clay straw panels were re-manufactured. Then once the panels had had time to cure, the panels were erected and the odd gap plugged with a mix of light clay straw.

This project was a great learning experience and provided insight into a way of pre-manufacturing light clay straw walling on-site. This has the advantage of providing a means of working in more controlled and worker-friendly conditions while dealing with the issue of shrinkage that one has with this technology prior to their being built-in on-site.

Technology-wise, this is an interesting space to watch and you can be sure that other work will follow from this experience.