A first prize house – Century Ceramica

A private residence in South Africa, in a unique landscape setting, defined by the warm and welcoming design of Uptown surfaces by Century. The House Jonker project has won the sixth edition of The Quinquennial Tile Award of Fincibec Group.

Architecture meets landscape, and not just any landscape, but one of the most striking areas of South Africa. A design challenge: incorporating contemporary elements, anthropising unspoilt nature while respecting it, and at the same time meeting the living needs of a family. The result is a private residence with strong, clean lines, capable of dialoguing with the soft curves of the surrounding hills through carefully selected materials and a colour palette inspired by the site of construction.

All this is House Jonker, the project that won the sixth edition of The Quinquennial Tile Award. The international award, conceived by the Fincibec Group, has ideally travelled the entire planet over the various editions, bringing to the forefront the best works of architecture and design created with ceramic surfaces by Century, Monocibec and Naxos, the companies in the Group.

Designed by Yvette Buitendag of Buitendag Architects, the villa is an example of contemporary architecture aimed at defying time. The design focuses on neutral tones, like the Uptown Sugar Hill floor chosen for the interior spaces.

House Jonker is located within the Oubaai Golf Estate, a residential complex with 180-degree views of the Indian Ocean, next to Herolds Bay on the famous scenic Garden Route, just a few kilometres from George, famous for one of South Africa’s most renowned golf courses. The spectacular location and the protected natural environment, where a wide range of wild animals can be observed, surround a family-friendly, modern villa with every possible comfort.

L’aspetto naturale di Uptown e la palette di colori offerta dalla gamma in gres porcellanato hanno rappresentato una chiave di volta per completare la moodboard materica selezionata dall’interior designer Marie De Lange di Kaza Interiors. “Abbiamo dato vita al look di House Jonker – spiega De Lange – creando numerosi contrasti. Toni scuri e intensi accostati ad altri più chiari e ispirati alla natura“.

The home is an example of contemporary architecture designed by Yvette Buitendag of Buitendag Architects with the aim of creating a structure with a timeless, recognisable and distinctive design, capable of transcending the trends and fashions of the season.
In designing the interiors, designer Marie De Lange of Kaza Interiors has sought warm, welcoming atmospheres, working above all on the colour palette, neutral but rich in contrasts, able to remain up-to-date even when inevitably evolved according to the needs of modern-day living.

Natural finishing for interiors and R11 grip surface for outdoor areas. The House Jonker project exploited the full aesthetic and technical potential of Century’s Uptown collection.

The ceramic finishings chosen for House Jonker played a key role in the success of the overall stylistic and functional result. The Uptown collection of porcelain stoneware by Century floored the interiors in the Sugar Hill colour and the exteriors in the Manhattan colour, where the presence of a swimming pool required products with an R11 grip finishing.

The Uptown porcelain stoneware is characterised by an extremely realistic stone effect. The elegant texture and colour range inspired by natural stones widely used in architecture makes the collection a versatile solution for indoor and outdoor flooring, both in contemporary settings and in the renovation of historic spaces.

The colour palette, close to the nature of the place, and the refined texture of Uptown convinced both designers and hosts. According to Johan (Drom) Van Tonder of Stiles, the supplier who directly followed the works of House Jonker, “the beauty and quality of these ceramic surfaces do not need to be explained, being so easy to imagine them in your own home”.