The best of both worlds

Endless ocean views can be
enjoyed from the dining room
with its double-volume glass
walls. Taking pride of place are
a bespoke steel Gregor Jenkin
dining table and locally produced
kiaat chairs O P P OSITE PAGE
A praying hands sculpture by
Ceramic Matters sets off a Tonic
Hawkers bench and coffee table.
The bronze sculptures in both
images are by Wilma Cruise
from the Strydom Gallery,
a favourite of the couple
The
best of
both worlds
positively family-friendly yet thoroughly
cutting edge, this architectural tour de
force in Wilderness is home to design
patrons trevyn and julian Mcgowan and
their children. after a recent renovation,
trevyn describes its increasing appeal
text Trevyn McGowan
photographs adriaan louw
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garden april 2012
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In the dramatically situated living
room a Bronze Age Num Num
table sits on a Conrad Botes and
Paco carpet for Southern Guild.
A cat sculpture by Hylton Nel looks
onto the room OPPOSI T E PAG E
C LOC KW I S E FR OM TO P L E F T
A selection of ceramic pieces including
work by the late Barbara Jackson and
her daughter Martine Jackson lines
the top of an intricately panelled
sideboard; the McGowan’s son xxx
rides in front of a graphic Marc Quinn
artwork and an Eames desk and
chair; Daniella Mooney’s Crepuscular
Ray was a must-have for the couple;
another of Mooney’s sculptures stands
sentinel at the fireplace
‘with such frequent travel for work, being at
home is all about family time undiluted by the
distractions of a city’ TREVYN MCGOWAN
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house
garden april 2012
get the same feeling every time. Rounding
the bend at Dolphin’s Point and looking
down on to 20kms of creamy beach line
and limitless ocean, my stomach flips and
I feel a kick of wonder. It is one of the most
beautiful places I have ever seen and I get
to live here.
Having bought an old house right on the
beach in Wilderness, on a crazy spur-ofthe-moment weekend tour of the Garden
Route, my husband Julian and
I decided to return to South Africa after 22
years in London. Swapping the inner city,
culturally booming East End – with its loft
apartments, artists studios and non-stop
nightlife – for a sleepy, remote National
Parks’ village, was not without its concerns
for making it long term. But eight years on,
and after only one real wobble, we couldn’t
be more settled and inspired.
Our five children too, are very happy at
their school where sailing, hiking and
april 2012 house garden
65
cycling are major activities. We are lucky to
have dedicated teams working with us in our
business and at home, and a house in the
Karoo just 90 minutes over the mountains
where we try to spend as much of the
holidays as possible. But, best of all, within
three minutes of making the last call of the
day, we can be in the ocean with the kids.
Knowing that it would be impossible to
replicate what we have here anywhere else,
and having realised that with such frequent
travel for work, being at home is all about
family time undiluted by the distractions of
a city, we committed to really settling in
Wilderness for the foreseeable future.
With that epiphany came the brave
decision last year to live and work through
a 12-month renovation. We had extensively
renovated the original thatched house in
2005, but at the time our family was smaller,
business was new and our plans for the
future were unsure. With our new needs
in mind, Julian designed a seamless threestorey structure extending out towards the
sea. We re-floored the entire house, installed
a rim-flow swimming pool and landscaped
the garden towards the beach.
The first motivation had been to build
a sizeable new office as our company had
grown and we really needed the space, but
the attraction of a new living area – glazed
on three sides and with a view comparable to
that from the deck of an ocean liner – proved
irresistible and so we doubled the scale of the
build. We switched the rooms around, built
more storage and redistributed furniture –
the old living room became the dining room
with additional kitchen storage, Julian’s
office became the family room and my old
office became the pool living area and hangout den for my teenage son and his friends. It
felt great to re-purpose spaces and redefine
how we used the space. Also exciting is the
spacious, new contemporary office, meaning
we now have room to spread out and review,
design and have large-scale meetings.
With new spaces came the fun of
commissioning furniture. Among the new pieces
are a four-metre-long desk that we all work
around and a steel cabriolet leg 14-seater dining
table, both from Gregor Jenkin, a bronze NumNum thorn coffee table by Bronze Age and a
carpet by Conrad Botes and Paco for Southern
Guild. We also asked Daniella Mooney to
C LOCKWISE FR OM RIG HT Gabriel plays with wire birds at the Gregor Jenkin meeting
table; loungers covered in External Home Fabrics overlook Wilderness beach from a private
and sheltered spot of the new extension, with its rim-flow swimming pool; from the pool, the
house’s cleverly conceptualised levels and structural linearity are clear; the ocean is visible
from almost anywhere in the house; the manicured garden on the entry side; Trevyn and
Julian McGowan; indigenous plants grow on the steep drop down from the house
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come down for a few days to install Crepuscular
Ray, a piece that we had fallen in love with at her
solo exhibition at Whatiftheworld. Even Julian
and I designed something – a 4x4-metre nude
leather button-back sofa system.
Every piece we have in the house is either a
sentimental family item, something meaningful
from London, or work from one of the talented
designers, ceramicists, glass blowers and artists
that we work with. Through Source, our agency
that supplies South African Design to many of
the major retailers world-wide, and Southern
Guild, our gallery that showcases collectable
design from top artists and designers in South
Africa and at exhibitions like Design Miami
and Design Days Dubai, as well as the newly
established Southern Guild Design Foundation,
we have become absolutely passionate about local
design and art. We love being surrounded by these
inspirational pieces and love that our children are
informed by design items that are authentic and
the result of personal journeys, rather than simply
‘fashionable’ design. We use prototypes and
work-in-progress pieces to see how they may be
improved for commercial production and there
is an ongoing stream of samples passing through.
The challenge is to resist making new purchases
for ourselves when we are on one of our many
buying trips with international clients.
Running on the beach in the mornings –
when I am disciplined enough to do so – I’m
sometimes the only person around, and I realise
how truly privileged we are. We are able to offer
our children a quiet, old-fashioned life, while still
being completely connected to the intensity and
creativity of the global design industry.
Southern Guild 8 www.southernguild.com;
Source 8 www.source-sa.com
n
‘We love that our children are
informed by design
items that are
authentic and the
result of personal
journeys, Rather
than simply
“fashionable”
design’ TREVYN
MCGOWAN
A bov e Ronel Jordaan felt pebbles,
and a Guido Van Besouw glass vessel
introduce interesting textures in
a bedroom LEFT Soho the dog relaxes
on a pouf by Mielie. An ottoman from
Source for Boardmans and tribal chair
from Amatuli Fine Art add additional
character to the office OPPOSITE
PAGE A collection of art by Conrad
Botes, ceramic Mermaid by Nico
Masemolo and lotus pouf by Jenny
Gifford for Southern Guild add whimsy
and feminine colour to the master
bedroom. A graphic fabric wall covering
from Mavromac adds to the intensely
layered but soft feel
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