For the last years artist couple Isabella Fischer and Piet Steyn, both passionate about recycling and reducing their human footprints on this beautiful planet, have been working on a shared dream to design and create their own space, a unique and soulful guesthouse, an artist's retreat built mostly from salvaged and reclaimed material. We would like to introduce ourselves to you and the progress we have made over the last years so that our vision becomes clearer to our guests.
We reside and own a piece of ground in a beautiful coastal town called East London. The town is part of the Eastern Cape Province. We do have breathtaking landscapes and beaches of incredible beauty surrounding East London. Within a 30 km drive, guests can either reach a Game Reserve or go on a fishing trip along the coast. We consider the spectacular and unspoilt nature, that we have in our province as our greatest asset.
The Artist's Escape is not your standard type of guest house. It does not adhere to universal trends and is by no means main stream. It rather offers accommodation to creative people, adventurers and divergent dreamers who are searching for a different or alternative cultural experience. The Artist's Escape is ideal for those minds who are interested in the development issues of the third world. The guest house is not designed in a minimalist way and the units have no clean lines like in so many interior design magazines. Subdued hues and the clinical form-follows function perspective are avoided to eliminate interior numbness and aloofness in the rooms. Like the name suggests it is an artist's escape from the world. A playful, colorful, rustic and enchanted place where the guests can wander and where in fact it will take guests some time to wander from one end to the other. It is a place to connect with the natural and the freedom it provides. It is a place to create your own art as well, bringing people together. Piet and Isabella are also in the process of building a small workshop, that will be equipped with craft materials like, easels, drawing boards, canvases, driftwood, bones and tiles to create mosaics. The Artist’s Escape is a constant work in progress. There will be a dark room for photographers who remain loyal to shooting with film. Guests are encouraged to use the space for free to create paintings, assemblages, crafts, sculptural pieces, a series of sketches etc.
The Artist's Escape is a guesthouse offering at the moment three unique and very different self-catering units.
The Artist's Escape Log Cabin is a studio, that has been built entirely from salvaged and recycled architectural antiques and materials. For the construction of the Artist's Escape log cabin, each and every piece of material used in its construction was either collected or bought second hand on auctions and in junk shops or reclaimed for free. The initial building phase of the log cabin was challenging to say the least. It took a lot of imagination to see the slow transformation of something that resembled in the beginning an ancient drab cabin, transform through the use of old planks, wood, doors and windows, that other people had thrown away into and exotic bird of paradise. The reason for comparing The Artist's Escape log cabin to an "exotic bird of paradise" is that if we look at this structure today it reminds us of a very unusual colorful and unique bird, that likes to live in thick forest and that you do not see so often. The end result of all our reclaiming and recycling efforts is a colorful, quirky and very unique cottage, that sleeps three, where even the interior design was created from second hand furniture. In order to revitalize the yesteryear furniture the pieces had to be re-imagined and transformed and up-cycled by Isabella and Piet. We are very proud of the outcome.
The "Hunter's Cottage In The Tree Tops " is a large apartment/home, ideal for families and friends surrounded by bush like vegetation with an open plan living area, that consists of two bedrooms, a bathroom with a Victorian ball and claw bath, a separate kitchen, a big sun room/lounge with a wood burning cooking stove, a separate kitchen as well as a huge deck. The cottage can sleep five people comfortably. It has a large separate enclosed garden area used only by the guests. The cottage is often rented by short term consultants or business people who are on a longer stay in East London. Again only reclaimed material has been used to design and build the Hunter’s Cottage. Even the bricks used for the construction of the walls have been collected on construction sites where houses were demolished.
The Pilot's room was named after a group of young pilots who stayed there and it has rather a Victorian/Bohemian feel to it. It offers a comfortable bedroom, a large bathroom with a corner bath set in natural rocks as well as an outside kitchen house “die oue kombuis”. It has a private garden as well.
And at last the "Wanderlust" is a large 6 m long vintage trailer that has been lovingly restored in a 1960's colorful and playful style with only original 1950's and 1960's cutlery and crockery. The "Wanderlust" is a glorious restored vintage trailer. From the colors chosen to paint the outside of the trailer to the original 1960s sky blue melamine dinner and tea set... everything is original vintage. The interior of the Wanderlust is in keeping with true vintage Decor and design. Pieces such as figurines, wall displays, cutlery and furniture used to furnish the trailer were carefully sourced over a couple of months from junk shops and second hand stores. The Wanderlust is surrounded by a deck and has an outdoor bath and toilet. To get the Wanderlust vintage caravan to its resting or parking place, where it was supposed to be turned into a self catering little luxury unit with a deck and a bamboo roof without destroying precious vegetation, serving as natural habitat for the diversity of birds, that live in the area we had to make an alternative plan, that would reduce the probable impact. So we rigged the Wanderlust over the walls to reduce our impact on nature. The Wanderlust had to be lifted with an enormous crane over the fence onto the property which is situated in a beautiful residential community close to a very famous South African surfing beach the Nahoon Beach. Our vision is a holistic one in the sense that there is a genuine attempt at harmony and symbiotic relationships with our surroundings.
We have grown only indigenous plants on our property. Giant old trees surround the property and so lend the feel of a guarded and intimate natural premises. All alien invading vegetation has been rooted out over the last decade. The soil and vegetation has not been treated by any pesticides or insecticides for the last fifteen years or more. As a result of the massive amount of leaves that fall from the trees on a daily basis the soil has become like compost. The Golden Mole which is considered an endangered subterranian species in South Africa and abroad has made itself a home here. These beautiful little animals burrow into and through the ground and keep the soil fertilized.
More than sixty bird species have been identified by the local East London bird watching society including the Fish Eagle and The Crested Crown Eagle. However we have counted more than sixty ourselves. Bird feeders and bird baths are installed on the property and birds tend to nest everywhere.
The Artist's Escape is not your standard type of guest house, it rather offers accommodation to people who are looking for a different experience. It's not minimalist. Like the name says it is an artist's escape from the world.
Our vision for the future
At the moment we are fundraising to complete our project. The primary reason for raising funds is to allow us to continue our holistic recycled living project. Fundraising will help to ensure the development of a tree house as a fourth guest unit and sustain existing progress. We believe that the tree house we are going to build will absorb the spirit and the strength of the tree and will be a healing place for its occupants. In line with our vision, only recycled and reclaimed material will be used. South Africa is at present facing enormous challenges in the field of sanitation and waste disposal. Plastic waste is a major threat to the wildlife and nature yet keeps on multiplying and spoiling the natural habitat of this beautiful country. Our project will also serve as an example and inspiration to people living in this country to make more use of discarded items and goods instead of buying new ones. The people of South Africa have been drastically conditioned by American and Western European consumerist thought. Our alternative guesthouse will hopefully stimulate many people to rethink their attitude concerning waste, junk and the use of plastic and other inorganic, salvageable materials. For many years we have been striving to life a cleaner more conscious and healthier life. This project with its holistic vision is a natural succession of our professional life spent in Africa trying to uplift and empower people and communities through our work. Not only have we been trying to live a cleaner live but we have been adamant to earn a living in the same spirit. It is our hope and intention to earn a living through our ecologically-sustainable guesthouse, where guests will be able to enjoy a different type of lifestyle.
Our endeavour is to offer completely different types of accommodation to visitors, living spaces that allow a connection with nature. We need a tree house because that is as close to nature as you can get and trees exert mighty cleaning and healing powers. In our view tree houses are the ultimate return to nature. The house will embrace and wrap itself around the two chosen trees but they will have space to grow further through the roof as a flexible membrane will be attached around the stems. A deck will surround the structure and stairs will lead from an elevated section situated a little higher on the property leading to the tree house. Although the tree house will be sitting high on the branches between the two trees, the access will be easy for guests who are not able to climb stairs. Moreover there will be a simple and stable walkway leading to the house.
We believe we have made much progress in achieving our dream goal, however more sustainable ideas need to be put in place to achieve properly sustained and overall healthy and natural living . The aim is to move to an entirely Green Way Of Living. The installation of solar systems and water catchment and purification systems is therefore a prerogative. This will allow the Artist's Escape to go gently but surely entirely off the municipal grid and offer a healthier way of living for us and our guests. We will be a completely ecologically orientated and sustainable guesthouse making use of our natural resources in a conscious and sensitive way. Municipal water is no longer safe nor guaranteed in South Africa and the pressure on the state-owned water and power supply system is immense. Thus economic pressure on basic needs is escalating precisely because of the growing population and the addition of hundreds of thousands of low cost houses to the municipal grid whose infrastructure is already overloaded.
The Artist's Escape already has a large and still expanding vegetable and herb garden and its products can be safely used by our guests. Long term guests are also encouraged to make use the planting boxes and beds to grow their own vegetables. What we need to do now is complete the tree house and take "The Artist's Escape" off the municipal grid.
Give Things A Second Life
Building with recycled and salvaged materials is a real challenge because each piece is different. It has its own distinctive mark and did often served another purpose in its prior life. All the different materials must be integrated into a harmonious, ecologically and structurally sound and holistic design, but it still needs to looks good and be inspiring to our visitors and guests. Before this can happen the pieces have to be collected and cleaned. Often the material has to be altered. This is why building with reclaimed material and architectural antiques take much longer than building with conventional construction material. But herein also lies the fascination and creative stimulation of working with recycled material. This is were the magic happens.
In addition to the aforementioned challenges another hurdle we are facing is the layout of our land. We are building on a steep slope that gradually leads into the bush. All the materials have to be carried inside. Fortunately we currently already have strong experience with this type of building and remain confident that we will create an enchanting tree house that will operate entirely off the grid.
Our guests are treated by us as our family members and we invite and welcome you to spend some time at the Artist’s Escape.
Isabella And Piet
