The offering

An entertainment area works when nobody has to leave it. We build covered patios, built in braais, outdoor kitchens and fire pits as a single space with power, light and shelter designed in from the start.

The common fault in an outdoor room is that it is assembled rather than designed. A braai goes in one year, a pizza oven the next, the lighting is added afterwards on a surface extension, and the result is a patio that people stand on rather than sit in.

We plan the whole thing at once: where the smoke goes, where the cook stands and whether they are facing the guests or the wall, how far the fridge is from the seating, what the space does on a windy evening, and how it is lit once the sun has gone. On the Atlantic Seaboard the wind is the design constraint and screening decides whether the space is used in February. In the Winelands it is usually the view, and the question is what you can build without standing in front of it.

The build covers masonry braais and fireplaces, built in seating, outdoor kitchens with counters in granite, quartz or concrete, gas and electrical reticulation, sunken fire pits, pergolas and louvred roofs, and the paving and lighting that tie them together. Where a boma or fire pit is close to the house we detail the surrounds in a non combustible finish rather than a decorative one.

What is included