Gabriel Fagan Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/51207

Drawings and plans by Gabriel Fagan, visual documentation of his oeuvre.

Articles:

Barker, AAJ 2010. Heterotrophic syntheses: mediation in the domestic architecture of Gabriel Fagan South African Journal of Art History, vol. 25, no 1, pp. 14-33.

Barker, AAJ 2012, Typological form in the architecture of Gabriël (Gawie) Fagan (1925-) South African Journal of Art History, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 130-171.

Barker, AAJ 2012, Cape vernacular interpretations, Architecture South Africa : Journal of the South African Institute of Architects, vol. 57, pp. 36-43.

Arthur, AAJ 2012, Heterotrophic syntheses : mediation in the domestic architecture of Gabriel (Gawie) Fagan, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria

SA Artefacts

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 21

House Swanepoel, Hermanus
(2013-10-21) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Swanepoel (1991), a weekend house in Hermanus, Western Cape, is a formal mediation of a full programme and a very tight site, orientating bedroom and living spaces to the northern sun, and the main living area towards the sea view. The house contains cellular edge spaces with an enclosed courtyard and a partly enclosed living space. The glazed courtyard roof connects the interior volume to the sky while providing light and ventilation within the constricted plan. A bathroom courtyard provides privacy, light, ventilation and a view of the stars at night. Small rooflights to internal bathrooms extend the cellar and sky theme. Security is provided by closely spaced reinforcing rods at the same pitch as the roof. In House Swanepoel in Hermanus the fireplace is both functionally and symbolically at the climax of the roof in the living spaces. The flue rises through a glazed roof connection where structural logic is almost defied, allowing the flue to be read as an independent element. The house anchors itself to the earth through the partially submerged garage and stone retaining wall to the north. A low garden wall to the south completes the framed “base”, while the rest of the house perches above.
House Swanepoel, Cape St. Francis
(2013-10-15) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson; Swanepoel, Pierre
Holiday house built in 1980 at Cape St. Francis, Eastern Cape, one of two houses designed by Fagan for Swanie and Montu Swanepoel. Influenced by the Cape vernacular, the thatched house is arranged so that bedrooms all connect to the outside and have privacy as well as sea views. The roof edge follows the slope of the dune into which the house nestles, and tapers to achieve a relatively level ridge line. The house received a South African Institute of Architects Merit Award in 1983.
House Wolfaardt
(2013-10-15) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Wolfaardt (1965), a farm house at Skaaprivierplaas in the Koue Bokkeveld, Western Cape. The house has a courtyard surrounded by buildings on three sides. A simple angled roof light provides light to the kitchen.
House Raynham
(2013-10-15) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Raynham (1967), Fernwood Estate, Newlands, Cape Town. For this house, Fagan reinterprets the plastic quality of the vernacular by moulding the entire built form to respond to site conditions, entry and internal organization. Fagan shifted the positioning of the chimney from its original end condition to act as symbol or focus, where the flue becomes both structure and support. A full plasticity is achieved in the volumetric arrangement of the house, where roofs and ceilings rise and fall as they create spatial continuity. House Raynham takes the visitor on a journey that exploits the advantages of context through light, solar contact and the view of Table Mountain. Material differences heighten transitions between spaces, mediating between hard and soft floor surfaces. The circulation route expands and contracts to form living, dining and playroom spaces. Tectonically there are connections to the vernacular through the brick floors, bagged and painted walls and timber ceilings.
House Brink, Langebaan
(2013-10-15) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Brink (2003) on Paradise Beach, Langebaan. The chimney to this house provides a counterpoint to the linearity of the house. The house has few street facing openings and extensive sea facing glazing to the underside of the curved ceilings. Its large volume is disguised by using the slope of the site, with only one level being exposed to the road, allowing views from the road to the sea.
Paradys, Langebaan
(2013-10-09) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
Fagan’s own holiday house, Paradys in Langebaan, was built in 2003. It’s design had to subscribe to aesthetic guidelines in terms of wall finish, roof pitch and materials, but he introduced a Mediterranean barrel-vaulted roof element in contrast with the flat roofed aesthetic that was required. This, and a blue colour he introduced, have since become part of the aesthetic guidelines. Paradys in Langebaan stands in stark contrast to its double storey neighbours, as it hugs the ground and allows views from the road to the sea. The large volume is disguised by using the slope of the site, with only one level exposed to the road. Paradys is iconic in its form making but, through its siting, hides below the road. It announces its presence only on the western ocean edge and through an exaggerated chimney. The barrel-vaults achieve structural efficiency, where the brick walls and roofs merge to form unified entities of structure and enclosure. A Stauch influenced efficiency is Fagan’s use of the space over the passageway to the bedrooms as sleeping lofts for the children. Each bedroom has an ablution pod. The tension between the wall and roof elements results in a dichotomy and hybridity of form that prevents a spatial monotony, while allowing flexibility in the use of space.
House Patterson, Somerset West
(2013-10-09) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Patterson (1966) in Somerset West was built for a potter. It is hidden from the street by a solid boundary wall, punctured only by a shuttered opening. The “house draws one, as into a spiral shell, towards the central hearth” (Fagan, c.1991:4). An upward spiral route leads the visitor from the street down a long driveway to a ceramic mural, with the front door placed at ninety degrees. On entry the visitor is turned to face the opposite direction where a staircase leads to a mezzanine study. At this point, views of False Bay are revealed. Fagan believes all elements should relate and enhance each other as far as possible, so the yard wall is made part of the house. The garden wall and three building blocks are used to define a courtyard hidden from the road and to foster the reading of a single form. Connections to the courtyard are limited, in a vernacular sense, to punctured openings, save for the original extensive open connection at the pottery studio end. House Patterson displays restraint in plastic articulation, but hints of plasticity can be seen in the curved junction of the living room roof.
House Neethling, Durbanville
(2013-10-09) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Neethling (1983) is organized in an amorphous linear manner to straddle the concerns of view, site orientation and northern sun. The edge of the projecting garage and garden wall define the entry route. The house has a bi-nuclear planning arrangement, with plans stepping down to create privacy. The bedrooms have a direct relationship with the garden, and the passage contains useable spaces. The chimney takes on a new role as structural support for the roof, with roof planes drawn towards it. The plasticity of the column chimney is innovatively explored, as the chimney twists to accept the tapering roof beams. A volumetric interaction between room and roof space occurs and boundaries are seemingly blurred in a continuously flowing interior space. The chimney becomes both the physical and functional hearth of the home and provides both an internal and external focus point.
Ida's Valley farm workers' housing
(2013-10-08) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
For the workers’ housing at Ida’s Valley farm near Stellenbosch (1975), Fagan employs the stereotomic quality of the Cape vernacular in a masonry architecture that acts both as structure and enclosure, where brick walls and roofs merge to form unified entities. This type of structure achieves sufficient thermal mass in a Mediterranean climate. Here, the barrel vaulted roof structures require support at both edges. Fagan cuts limited openings in these supporting walls, leaving a substantial beam and edge to define each space.
House Mitchell, Newlands, Cape Town
(2013-10-08) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Mitchell (2005), Newlands, Cape Town. Fagan's knowledge of boat building and the compromises that need to be reached between weight and durability versus speed has played a significant role in his material choices. He often employs the flitch beam where larger spans would make the size of timber uneconomical and bulky, as at House Mitchell (2005). Here he combines timber with plate steel to form rafters. He also employs cross beams to limit the size of rafters. The positions of these cross beams also help to define and demarcate spaces. 'Machine' type technologies, allied with those of yacht building, can be seen in the detailing of column junctions. Fagan exploits the possibilities of large glass planes to form bigger openings that were not possible in the past.
House Luckhoff, Onrust River
(2013-10-08) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Luckhoff, Onrust River [Onrus River or Onrusrivier], Western Cape, 1981. Fagan's predilection for the stereotomic quality of the Cape vernacular wall results in his houses displaying a masonry architecture that acts both as structure and enclosure. Fagan asserts this is necessary in a Mediterranean climate to provide sufficient thermal mass. The most developed approach occurs in houses such as Paradys (2003) and Luckhoff (1981). In House Luckhoff the openings are arched to extend structural and formal integrity. The stereotomic tradition of brick-vaulted roofs has been translated so that roof, wall and floor all become one, attaining a complete plastic unity. The limited brick palette also fosters economical construction.
House Levin, Saldanha Bay
(2013-10-08) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Levin (1969), Saldanha Bay, Western Cape. For this house Fagan mediates the requirement for open and flexible space with the cellular nature of quieter and more private spaces, all within a controlled container. The central volume extends the Modern Movement typology of the free plan upward, while cellular spaces define its boundary. Fagan often creates a woven wall internally, here through the use of natural timber balustrades that are extended upwards to meet the roof and provide partial privacy between the double volume living space below and the bedrooms above. Fagan manipulates roofs in innovative ways to allow solar gain and views where necessary. That of House Levin breaks centrally to allow light to penetrate the circulation volume.
House Gabriel Fagan, Camps Bay
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
Perched on the Atlantic face of the Cape Peninsula, this house is in an area which was practically uninhabited until the 20th century. Its savage climate, with wind and rain coming in off the southern ocean, discouraged development, even though the district is only two miles from the centre of Cape Town. But changing sensibilities about the picturesque, and modern building materials which can withstand the climate, have enabled the area to become popular. The house is a personal statement. It is hand-built (craftsmanship is very expensive). It relies on a poetic reading of the site and a feeling for the vernacular, which is abstracted in a sensitive modern manner without any hint of kitsch or pastiche in the white stuccoed walls and Cape Dutch chimney. The plan is rich in delightful changes in level and minute deflections in the angles of wall planes, particularly around the processional entrance. Here the materials are selected for their visual and tactile and also their audible qualities. The lower level of the house has a concrete slab roof, forming the floor to the bedroom wing above. This concrete plane is played off against the similarly monolithic structural concept of the laminated timber plate roof, distorted into waves to span the distances. [SA Artefacts: http://www.artefacts.co.za./main/Buildings/bldgframes.php?bldgid=7639&archid=2121]
House Keurbos, Bishopscourt
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson; Krige, Leon
Designed by the architect for his parents, Judge and Mrs. H.A. Fagan, the white walls and simple treatment of this house set high on the hillside of Bishopscourt Estate, with a view of Table Mountain and the Cape Flats, have a flavour of the Cape Dutch with the benefits of contemporary architecture. [http://www.artefacts.co.za./main/Buildings/bldgframes.php?bldgid=9250&archid=2121]
House Fagan, McGregor
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
For House Fagan in McGregor (2008), designed for his nephew Johan, Fagan submerged the garage under the house to, at a functional level, facilitate service spaces to be located out of sight and to partially hide the garage doors. Another major advantage of this arrangement is the reduction of building bulk and partially raising the building to gain better access to views or sunlight. The living space becomes a mediator between sleeping spaces on each side. Stylistically, House Fagan in McGregor straddles the line between respect for traditional form and functional and contextual necessity.
House Gardener, Camps Bay
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Gardener, Camps Bay, Cape Town, 1972.
House Blommaert, Stellenbosch
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
The entrance and main circulation route in House Blommaert (1982) in Stellenbosch orientate the visitor towards Table Mountain. The circulation routes are defined to accentuate their function. The internal route from living to bedroom areas is more intimate but widens to form a worktop space. A passageway leads to a more secluded environment and is fully glazed on one side with gentle treads. It merges internal and external spaces and reinforces the transition from living to sleeping areas. The height of the enclosure and exposure to the sun create an evocative and appropriate human scale. Mediation between inside and outside is achieved in the stepped glazing, where a sun-filled courtyard extends onto a stepped passageway linking two independent blocks.
House Simpson, Auldearn Farm, Elgin
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Auldearn was designed with a view to establishing an integrated and horizontal relationship with the landscape in stark contrast to Fagan's other work. It maintains a strong singular form but digs into and straddles a hill, echoing a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie approach. The house provides a rich spatial experience. A small internal planted courtyard creates a focus at the end of the passageway to the bedrooms. The glazed roof above allows light and sun to enter and provides a connection to the sky above.
House Bertie-Roberts
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
House Bertie-Roberts (1966) is located in Camps Bay, on an exposed rocky corner site. The entrance route from below is guided by the sides of garden retaining walls that lead under a cantilevered edge of the house above. Here ground and house meet in an open riser staircase slung along the side of a concrete retaining wall. The house literally hovers between earth and sky as the box form, carried on two concrete u-shaped channels, cantilevers over stone and concrete retaining walls. The building is grounded by its walled connection to the earth. Structural and functional efficiency is expressed by the cantilevered concrete beams supporting the building while acting as service ducts. The position of the chimney visually assists in a supporting role. In this house the first evidence of Fagan’s creation of private spaces outside bedrooms can be seen, where the cupboard areas are extended externally to create private recesses.
House Beyers, Betty's Bay
(2013-10-03) Fagan, Gabriel Theron (Gawie); Barker, Arthur Adrian Johnson
Nagenoeg (1998, also called House Beyers), a weekend house for drs. A.D. and Louise Beyers at Betty's Bay, Western Cape. For this house, contextual and spatial informants fostered a cantilevered support system. The concrete work is pure in its expression of the supporting structure. The house is proportioned on a 1130mm bi-gridded system. House Beyers has a central living space framed by cellular bedroom spaces on the western and eastern edges. Light is used to effect, and rooflights around the chimney give focus to internal spaces. The chimney flue is centered at the roof pinnacle, and the surrounding roof sections are glazed to establish a connection to the sky, while allowing the flue to be read as an independent element. Corner windows are employed as generators. These allow diagonal views towards the sea and mountain, but an introverted spatial quality is maintained for the living space. Fagan thus mediates between external contact, the sheltering nature of the vernacular tradition, and the necessities of modern life.

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