Bruynzeel House

Bryunzeel's STORMY II won the Cape Town - Rio Race, 1973

Yellow-wood ceiling

Welcome to Landmark House

The Bruynzeel House is a Landmark in Stellenbosch
18 Constantia Avenue    Architect: Aardt Bijl
It was built by the wood merchant and yachts man, Kees Bruynzeel, in 1962.
The roof of the house has the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid,
built with teak rafters and lined with yellow wood.   Continue

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50 years ago the Dutch wood merchant, Kees Bruynzeel, wanted to show what you can do with wood. He commissioned a brilliant young architect, Aardt Bijl, to design his home.
Aardt Bijl was a student of the well known architect Pius Pahl and both were influenced by the Bauhaus tradition. But where the typical Bauhaus building has a flat roof, Aardt Bijl used a technical wonder: a roof in the shape of a hyperbolic paraboloid (saddle shape).
The roof, constructed with teak rafters, was raised first standing just on 2 concrete pillars. The community of Stellenbosch was fascinated and watched the building activity closely, especially when shortly after the roof stood a raging storm was devastating the area for days. But the roof stood firm.
Then the rest of the house was built with flat face-brick, specially made for this house, teak panels and enormous glass windows set in teak frames. The walls were fitted into the roof in a way that left free movement for the roof.
When this super modern building was completed it met with a similar reaction Paris greeted the building of the Eiffel tower in 1889: outrage in the conservative population, sheer delight from architects and engineers.
Today, Stellenbosch is proud of the famous Bruynzeel House and architects from many countries have come to admire it.
The materials used for the construction of this building are of unsurpassed quality:
Teak, yellow wood, copper, glass and a slim face brick that was commissioned and specially made for this house.
The quality of workmanship is equally stunning. The face brick walls were built with a slight slope of 3 degrees, which is a costly procedure but so much more elegant. The bedrooms have moulded plaster ceilings.

30 years ago, a German family bought the house, utterly overwhelmed with the beauty of the building and its setting on the north facing slope of Stellenboschberg.

You are welcome to ask me for information and high resolution photos.

More information:
The house was built 1961/62 for Mr. & Mrs C. Bruynzeel by BIJL GREEN & TODESCHINI ARCHITECTS
67, Strand Street, Cape Town, in Association with Munnik Visser & Black

Links:
Cornelis ("Kees") Bruynzeel (February 19, 1900, Rotterdam - 1980) was a Dutch businessman, timber merchant and yachtsman.
Pius Pahl
Marius Low, then a professor at the Engineering Department of SU,was involved with the calculations for fixing the roof on the pillars
and the architect, Jochem Maas, 4 Constantia Avenue, Stellenbosch, with the construction of the guest cottage.