magpie vol 2

28 VOL 1. NOVEMBER 2012

casestudy

BRICOLAGE A pocket of pastoral life exists in the suburbs. The fleet

of heavy-duty vehicles that pass through the gates each day are simply a front for the wonderworks that

emerge from the mounds of rubble and rusted skeletons of homeless furniture. Owners Dalene and Lester Plasket show us around their free-

holding tucked away on the corner of Hout Bay’s busy Main Road, which by day is the site of a thriving demolition busi-ness. With a mutual love of restoration and invention, they ex-plain the flawed beauty they find in earthquake-shaken walls, sprung floorboards and raw cement.

They may live in a busy suburb, yet Dalene and Lester have successfuly created their own bucolic haven where their daily lives are principled by recycling and remanufacture.

partners in providence

FRENCH / repurposing used materials to create something new

Bricolage, a strain in visual arts, music and informa-tion technology concerned with appropriating materi-als and creating new purposes for them, best explains this aesthetic reisistance to soulless catalogue deco-rating. French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss coined the term when he learned that found objects and materials could be used as a means of expres-sion. By Levi-Strauss’ standards, Dalene and Lester are

quintessential bricoleurs in their use of another man’s junk for treasure. With a shared aversion to wastage and a common eye for detail, the pair lead highly pro-ductive lives of subsistence and remanufacture, their free-holding a stomping ground for their many projects woven into the farm’s day-to-day running.

VOL 1. 27 NOVEMBER 2012

casestudy


Dalene Plasket hates buying things. She’s prag-matic about it, too. Every morning she collects eggs from the nearby chicken run, their whites thick and supple and great for meringue-whipping. Holism, hus-bandry and a pair of green gumboots are the secrets to a kibbutz-inspired living space where plants grow unrestricted between exposed brick and animals wander free. Her guer-rilla approach to decorating extracts the rudimentary beauty from distressed wood, bare rock and rust-works, while surfac-es and frames remain deliberately unmeasured. It is a home built around the land instead of on it. With shared aversion to wastage and a common eye for de-

tail, Dalene and husband Lester lead highly productive lives of subsistence and remanufacture, their free-holding a stomp-ing ground for their many projects woven into its day-to-day running. Dalene keeps books by day, yet she finds repose in the bu-

colic delights of goose-herding, landscaping and overseeing general operations at Disa River Farm, a working co-op on Hout Bay’s busy Main Road. The farm, affectionately known as ‘The Yard’ by its guests and residents, is far from an ordi-nary suburban setup. There are no Joneses to keep up with here. In place of manicured topiaries, novelty letterboxes and good-citizen lawns, giant yellow bulldozers and other growly earthmovers can be seen passing through the front gate dur-ing the working week. Aside from the main homestead, there are two other houses

on the Farm, which Dalene rents out to tenants and holiday-

makers. “We’ve never had to buy a single door or window frame for any of them,” she says proudly,

and indicates to the sunny kitchen windows. “These window frames come from a home in Diep River we de-

molished – it must’ve been about eighty years old”. When husband Lester gets a call to demolish a house,

Dalene is the first on the scene, inspecting the site for sal-vageable materials. On her regular urban foraging expedi-tions, Dalene admits it can become tricky to resist the urge to overstock. “Sometimes it gets a little out of control and you start

hoarding.”Lester recalls a particularly difficult job in Gympie Street, Salt River, where a council eviction was in progress as part of an urban renewal scheme. “I had orders to flatten the place immediately before the residents occupied the build-ing again. The sheriff of the court was already there evicting people. All their stuff was on the pavement and the cats kept running back into the building. I had to run in after them sev-eral times and chase them out. I remember the block – an old building fitted with solid Oregon beams. I couldn’t save those, sadly.”Lester acquired the property in 2008 as a turf on which to

set up his demolition business. The original homestead had fallen into disrepair.Together he and Dalene started from the foundations up (these remain slightly tilted as the result of an earthquake in the thirties). “The walls are still a little crooked in some places,” Lester says. “When you fill the bathtub the water gathers in the deeper end.”

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The walls are still crooked from an earthquake in

the thirties.


casestudy

Dalene’s guerilla approach

to decorating extracts the beauty from

distressed wood and bare rock.

9ways to green your home

(with stuff you already have )

use fruit and vegetables that are in season

grow your own vegetables

think before you throw things awayrecycle tins and plastic

use borehole water

use candle stubs as fire-lightersmake your own compost

customise things you’re bored of instead of buying new.

use offcuts and scrap wood as fire-wood for renovating and building.

“Oregon pine is a sought-after wood. A solid 2.5m chunk can fetch several thousand rand.”

know your timber


rootbulb The tree-root chandelier is one of the Yard’s trademark products. These organic light features with their gnarled druidic character make unusual additions to a living room or gathering place. Like something out of Nordic myth, they appear to grow through ceilings, giving new meaning to ‘down-to-earth design’. After blasting it clean, the root is strung with energy-saving rice lights and suspended with rusty chains bolted firmly into the ceiling. The result is a warlock-esque light source, of which a completed version currently hangs in a local food market.

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Maxwell sands down an old bookcase, which he will later paint with a fresh coat of white. Repainting tired furniture is an effective way to lighten up a naturally dark room.

grit and polish

The Yard is the site of Lester’s demolition business, making it a mine of old furniture, rusty balustrades and other paraphenalia.

rubble rousers

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carbon (re)mission A colourful bouquet of empty petroleum cannisters ready for recyling.

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from floor to surface

A repurposed kitchen dining table made from solid Oregan floorboards salvaged from a demolition site plays host to many hurried breakfasts.

tactile pleasures Dalene ‘s life at the Yardmeans she’s always using her hands, whether gathering eggs, painting furniture or planting new additions in her growing rockery.

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domesticated The Yard’s resident animals are free to roam.

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lighting created from

rustedmetal

sheeting

solid oregan pine beams

salvaged from demoli-

tion site

polished white cement floor

natural light

re-creation on cueThe Games Room, housed in an annex separate from the main homestead, is an eclectic mix of restoration projects. Built from scratch using odd bricks and metal sheeting, the room hosts cocktail parties, billiards and relaxed gatherings.

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exposed brick walls

above A set of bright bar stools with alimium-tubing legs is a rare synthetic accent in the otherwise rustic room.

below The cottage sign suspended from a tree with upcycled chain-links.


The minor blemishes give the house unmistakable character. Its flawed

beauty echoes the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi, an aes-thetic pillar that counteracts the Western ideal of perfection. There isn’t a straight line in the

place. In keeping with wabi-sabi values of asymmetry and imper-

manence, Dalene and Lester have created an organic living space that

boldly defies the Golden Ratio. With its log cabin charm, raw textures and unpolished accents, the design privileges the understated, proving that rough-hewn beams as ceil-ing supports are far better than boring old cornices.“We kept the footprint of the house,” Dalene says. “All the

walls are in their original places. We just rebuilt everything to make it liveable.“The man who owned the house in the thirties had a balle-

rina for a daughter. That’s why the floorboards are sprung,” she adds. For someone in the demolition business, Lester is decid-

edly creative, channelling his flair for handiwork into a host of imaginative repurposing projects. He sees bricolage potential in even the most commonplace of items.“People underestimate the value of scrap like claw-foot bathtubs.

You can cut them into a chaise lounge shape to make a bench or chair, or you can plumb them to create an inter-esting water feature.“Welding is a great way to make furniture and décor ac-

cents. Rusty metal sheeting is a pliable material and you can weld it together like glue. We’ve made striking light features from up-turned rusty oil

drums, in the shape of a flower. We cut the petal shapes and bend them outwards.”For Dalene, there is a simple alternative to consumer cul-

ture – never buy something you can make yourself. “It’s unbelievable what people throw away,” she says. She sources ideas in magazines – mostly the home and gar-den kind. She makes sure to skip pages that feature im-peccably white interiors. “As long as it’s not chic and clinical I’m happy.” she says. A new project, thanks to the unusually sunny weather, is

in progress. Dalene’s found some wooden panelling sal-vaged from a construction site and, along with a small wa-ter feature, she plans to mount it to the exterior wall of the house. Maxwell, the Yard’s resident carpenter, is sanding down a coffee table, preparing to repaint it. Instead of cut-ting out a new window, Dalene’s adding a coat of paint to existing furniture to brighten the light-poor living room. She believes in staying true to materials. “If a room is dark, let it be dark.”

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SCAN

Become a bricoleur with our curated list of only-two-hands-needed projects for the kitchen and living room.

“As long as it’s not chic and clinical I’m

happy.”

casestudy


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NICHOLAS MALANDER – sales consultant, Power Tool

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magpie vol 2

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