Like hen's teeth and dodos, there don't seem to be a lot of entrance halls nowadays. Not in houses, anyway. They may have become unfashionable.
According to leading international trend forecaster, Li Edelkoort, rooms lose popularity, and Cape Town interior designer Iona Bennie, who is among those fortunate enough to have heard the Dutch-born guru speak, says the hot rooms to have, apparently, are libraries and dressing rooms.But, while entrance halls have undoubtedly lost popularity among the newer, smaller homes being built on the Cape Peninsula and in developments in Gauteng and KZN, there are some examples to be found, that, while ignoring the trend, are nevertheless impressive.
Mrs Bennie and her husband Ian are partners in the sought-after Cape Town based Fresh Interiors, specialising in renovating old spaces and kitchens. Perhaps because of their liking for antiquities, the Bennies were among the designers who had an entrance hall to offer, in a house they designed in association with Charlotte Chamberlain, in Highlands Estate. The house, which belongs to UK clients, has a Georgian-style exterior but the tall-ceilinged entrance hall which gives access to the upper and lower floors is quite modern, like the rest of the interior.
A chandelier of polished steel wire and rods with small 20 watt halogen lights hangs from a round recessed panel in the ceiling, and the shape is echoed in the circular pattern of sandstone tiles on the floor. Clerestory windows bring light in from three sides and there are matching sets of three high, narrow fixed-pane windows on the side walls. The hallway is painted in a colour that closely matches the sandstone floor. The dark-wood staircases lead downward and upward from the end of the hallway facing the large double front doors. The entrance to the house is approached via a gravel and tile pathway that passes between the walls of the double garage and the guest apartment to the left and right of the front door. There is a celebratory air about one's arrival at the house.In nearby Oranjezicht, overlooking the monumental reservoir on Belvedere Avenue, and with breathless views over the city and harbour, is Cape Riviera, which has an entrance hall of unashamed splendour. But the house dates back to 1912 and is a Heritage building, so its deco decadence is entirely expected. This entrance hall is so grand, it has its own entrance hall, which one enters from the side veranda and passes through, to be received on the 30-odd square metres of matte terra-cotta tile that covers the floor of the entrance hall proper.
Malie Engelbrecht, manager of what is now a four-star super luxury guest house occupied by the building, says the entrance hall, of all the grand and spacious rooms in the house, is the most remarkable.The black and red floor tiles that appear original to the house, are combined with what could have been a later addition of glazed jade-green wall tiles, topped by a series of abstract murals that were created in the 1950s by artist Eric Laubscher, the founder and principal until a few years ago of the Ruth Prowse Art School in Cape Town. Crowning all the glory is a vaulted stained glass skylight.
Co-owner and decorator of the guest house, Owen de Jager, has left the beautifully preserved room largely untouched, except for the addition of a water feature in a wall recess, some elegant vases, and antique suitcases.
Noordhoek in the deep south of the peninsula is not generally known for its grand houses, except perhaps for one of the grandest of them all, the South African price-record-breaking manor house at De Goede Hoop Estate. But this seaside suburb is also home to a very fancy entrance hall in a house on the whimsically-named Sleepy Hollow Lane. Artist Karen Lijnes and her civil engineer husband Jon bought the house with the intention of staying there for the foreseeable future, so the features they added to the relatively simple original building have been a personal indulgence.
Not least is the six-metre brick dome over the entrance hall built with the help of eco-designer, architect Andy Horne. The marathon feat involves exposed russet-coloured face brick, with extruded patterns, topped by a skylight. The dome is supported on vaults and arches also of brick. Among the materials used in the construction was a huge four metre Oregon pine beam, removed as unsound during restoration of the Castle of Good Hope. With the rotted outer layer removed, a very usable core around 40 centimetres square was found and incorporated in the Lijnes' project. The focal point in the room is a big steel chandelier designed by Karen, using almost unrecognisable Coca-Cola and wine bottles, and artifacts she created.While in some quarters entrance halls may be losing favour, they do create an irreplaceable sense of occasion. This is borne out by the grand entrances of the Randlord houses in Gauteng and homes of the sugar barons in KZN. And the term voorportaal had the entrance halls of the Karoo Ostrich Palaces (Volstruispaleise) very much in mind. But like the dinosaur, they're a dying breed, and Li Edelkoort* may have a point – you don't see a lot of tricliniums, loggias, vestibules, butlers' pantries, lobbies or porte-cocheres around either.
*According to Google, Li Edelkoort is one of the world's most renowned trend forecasters and founder of the Edelkoort Group. A Dutch native, she studied fashion and design at the School of Fine Arts in Arnhem, and upon graduation became a buyer at the leading Dutch department store, the Bijenkorf. There she discovered her talent for sensing upcoming trends, and her unique ability to predict what consumers would want. – Neill Hurford
Photos by Fiona Barclay-Smith
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