About the project
The new Cheetah Plains game lodge in the Sabi Sand Each Plains House has a private arrival courtyard with Game Reserve in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Designed by ARRCC, the space reinvents traditional safari-style architecture. Combining state-of-the- art sustainable architecture with a pioneering afro-minimalist aesthetic, Cheetah Plains contrasts contemporary inorganic forms with the natural landscape, creating a unique style.
“Our lifestyles are modern; nature is raw and primal. It is in that honest contrast that a beautiful tension exists,” says lead architect Stefan Antoni. “The architecture exists to enhance the experience of the outdoors – not to mimic it, but to complement it so that guests may experience the bush more directly, more immediately.”
Where the architecture is pristine and linear, the interior design introduces softness and texture – at times retaining a certain grittiness with rough stone walls, raw concrete, weathered steel and sheets of glass.The curvature of the black steel flues of the fireplaces, for example, contrasts artfully with the straight lines of the architecture. Richly textured fabrics, aged leathers, and wood grains have been subtly offset with sleek details in gold, bronze, and black.