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Architects: Felix Brinkhege
- Year: 2022
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Manufacturers: Bulthaupt, Schüco
Text description provided by the architects. The Zambezi River House overlooks Africa's mightiest river, which flows into the Indian Ocean; at the same time, it forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Two different national parks surround the Zambezi Fish Farm, whose central building is the project - the smaller Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means "thundering smoke" in the local language and whose end is the Victoria Falls, and the much larger Zambezi National Park on the Zimbabwean side. When the sky is clear, you can see the "thundering smoke" of the falls from the roof terrace of the house, which stir up so much water vapor that they can be seen like a single cloud on the horizon.
Since the Zambezi recently threatened to collapse due to overfishing, a Zambian-Zimbabwean-Swedish joint venture was granted a special permit to farm fish at this point on the river in order to satisfy local demand and thus curb overfishing. Since then, a separate pumping station on the river has been pumping large amounts of water up the land rising from the river and irrigating the fish ponds, which are laid out like rice terraces, back down to the river. Before the water is returned to the river's circulation, it flows through an artificial swamp in which aquatic plants such as reeds and water lilies extract the high nutrient values from it. The house is thus embedded between the river, swamp, fish terraces and the national parks, like a headland - which are also the main drivers of the design.
The gently sloping terrain towards the river made it necessary to place the house and its spacious outdoor areas on a base, the curved shape of which takes up the topography of the fish terraces and, at the same time, represents a natural barrier for the wildlife that comes up from the river at night. The outer walls of the base consist mostly of a dry stone wall made of yellow-green shimmering quartzite stone, which is quarried in the Zimbabwean plateau. The end of this base is a drop-shaped, curved infinity pool, which, at the same time, with its partially soft edge towards the house, takes up the language of the water terraces.
The desire for a house with an inner courtyard was countered by the simultaneous need to maximize the view down to the river with its wildlife of hippos, antelopes and, in the dry season, elephants that gather there to drink. This resulted in the floor plan shape of a ring - in which the long side, with its 42 meters of living areas and guest wing, faces the river, while the more technical program, such as the workshop, laundry rooms, garages, etc., faces the fish terraces and is arranged around a central inner courtyard.
In order to break up the length of the large facades and at the same time emphasize the cubature of the ring, each of the five views bends once or twice by six degrees. Instead of a simple residential and country house, the house can be seen as the administrative and representative center of the large agricultural operation, which accommodates both guests and, at regular intervals, aqua biologists who are responsible for the health of the fish stocks. On the upper floor, however, there is a separate apartment.
All of the exterior walls and large parts of the interior walls were built from rammed earth walls that were a good 30 centimeters thick in order to protect the house from the high temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius in the dry season months. Contrary to the often desired layered effect, a more homogeneous facade appearance was sought by mixing the local, already highly oxide-containing red earth in large quantities to minimize color deviations. In order not to change the natural color of the soil too much, only a small additive of four to five percent white cement was added for stabilization.
This rough, monolithic look is counteracted by the frameless sliding windows, which were installed particularly in the sleeping and living areas and which make it possible to open two-thirds of the large window front to both the river and the inner courtyard so that during the day it is possible to live as if under an open, cross-ventilated veranda. A young baobab tree was planted in the inner courtyard, which will later provide shade for the courtyard and form the center of the house. The reinforced concrete ceiling was cast in different thicknesses depending on the placement and static requirements, whereby the surrounding verandas around parts of the house could be reduced to thicknesses of just 15 cm.
To the north, the roof slope forms a 60 cm high attic to cover the structure made of elevated roof terrace tiles, which also act as heat protection. This creates a partly very closed image towards the main axis of incidence of sunlight (north), while towards the river, the filigree of thin steel supports, floor-to-ceiling narrow window profiles, and low roof structure heights predominates. The range of materials used inside is limited to polished exposed screeds, lime plaster walls, local teak, and unplastered rammed earth. The staircase and staircase gallery in the entrance area, as well as other details in the bathrooms, were clad in copper - in homage to the region's large copper deposits, which are also Zambia's largest export good and single item in GDP
Together with the oxide red of the rammed earth and the polished teak, they form a muted color palette of natural red, brown, and orange tones - but at the same time contrast with their very different material properties. Three other structures made of rammed earth are arranged around the main house - each nuanced in its material and color mix: a boat garage, a carport, and a pool house with sauna and steam bath. A water treatment system and photovoltaics on parts of the roofs make the house self-sufficient - connecting it to the electricity and water network would hardly have been possible due to its isolated location.
