A Magical, Off-Grid Guesthouse Disappears Into the South African Bushveld

Hidden amidst the dense trees of a private reserve in Waterberg, South Africa, is a long, narrow building that appears to grow from a steep cliff out into the treetops. Crafted from local brick that evokes the sandstone rock face and capped with a green roof, the House of the Tall Chimneys is a guesthouse by Johannesburg-based architecture studio Frankie Pappas that celebrates a visceral connection with nature.

"This building is a way of being amongst the trees and the life that inhabits these trees," says architect Ant Vervoort. "It’s about waking up to vervet monkeys playing two meters from your bed, chacma baboons sunning themselves on the roof in the afternoon, and leopards walking beneath the building in the morning. It’s about how light filters through a saligna tree in summer, and how the air smells during a thunderstorm—these are quintessential Bushveld things, and I wanted this building to be a place to experience them. The value of the building is in its capacity to get out of the way and ask you to be a part of something remarkable."