Opening 2027
Set on a rockface above Wilderness
Lindl and I spent two years looking for a plot where we can build. We saw hundreds of sites, but when we climbed up this granite rockface above Wilderness, Garden Route, we stopped looking.
We're now building a house for two where you don't check out until 3pm and where one night feels like two.
We'll write about it as we build. What we choose, what costs more than it should, and what we get wrong.
Follow along as we build.
With care,
Steyn & Lindl
The week before Penny presented Stilkrans for the first time, I woke up at night wondering if she'd understood our vision.
When the presentation started, I couldn't tell whose house I was looking at; the shape was unexpected and the entrance unfamiliar.
But as she moved through it, room by room, it became obvious she'd understood exactly what we were trying to make.
From straight lines to curves
I remember the uneven surface of the sandstone wall I sat on, water falling from a waterfall I built, birds bathing and the grass underneath my feet.
A few months later, we bought a piece of land in Wilderness. With no access road yet, we needed to climb the rock face every time we wanted to visit it. I've stopped counting how many times I've grabbed the fynbos branch to pull myself up.
A story about sensesInterior explorations by Susan Smit and Penny Vorster
Follow Stilkrans from early ideas and architectural plans to build progress, milestones, and setbacks.
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Frequently asked
Stilkrans is a small villa for two, being built on a granite rockface above Wilderness, on the Garden Route in South Africa.
One bedroom, one bathroom, about 95m², between the ocean and the Outeniqua mountains. It opens in 2027.
Lindl and I are building it and writing about it as we go: what we choose, what costs more than it should, and what we get wrong.
Yes and no. Everything in it is real and made to last: solid timber, stone, aged brass, deep-set windows, nothing thin or fake. But it doesn't work like a luxury resort or hotel.
It's small and private: one bedroom, no front desk, no restaurant, no room service, no menu of amenities. The care goes into the things you touch every day, the weight of a handle, stone underfoot, a room that holds you. Not into a list of services.
No. There’s no spa, no treatments, no programme, no schedule.
Stilkrans is a well-made house you stay in. You cook, read, swim, sleep, and do nothing in particular. The good feeling comes from the space and the pace, not from a service.
Two people. Mostly couples who want time that feels unhurried and full.
It suits people who'd rather stay in one good place than tick off ten attractions. It doesn't suit families, children, or groups. There's one bedroom, and the whole place is intentionally built around two.