The following travelogue is written by Odyssées d’Architectures. During our stay in Namibia, we discovered the work of architect Nina Maritz. Based in Windhoek, the capital, her firm, Nina Maritz Architects, designs buildings with careful consideration of material use.
Her project, Shipwreck Lodge, which we had the chance to visit, is a prime example. Located on a dune in the Skeleton Coast Park, the 10 rooms of this high-end accommodation are designed to be entirely dismantled after 10 years. As is often the case in the country, the lodge was granted a concession to build on this protected site. Should this concession not be renewed, the architect has ensured that the site can be returned to its original state, as it was before construction.
Another remarkable achievement by Nina Maritz is her ability to use ordinary, even “humble,” materials while designing a lodge aimed at a luxury clientele. For instance, particleboard panels are used as cladding for the partitions and interior walls of the rooms. Untreated wood can also be seen in the facades, along with structural columns that intentionally extend unevenly above the building’s outline. All of this is, of course, carefully calculated and designed to evoke a sense of shipwreck, referencing the hostile coastline
where many vessels have met their end.
Finally, these materials are so well implemented and contribute so seamlessly to the project’s concept that they do not shock the visitor. Quite the opposite… The architecture of Shipwreck is not designed to be flashy or ostentatious; rather, it aims to blend discreetly into the landscape. Apart from a few jackals, antelopes, and the rare desert lions, there isn’t much to impress anyone out here. The visitor feels tiny in the face of the vastness and desolation of the surrounding landscape. The architecture plays with contrasts, creating a unique experience with atmospheres that range from raw and rugged to soft and warm.
In a similar vein, for the Visitor Center at Twyfelfontein, Nina Maritz employs reclaimed materials. The roof of the building is entirely covered with old oil drums that have been cut and used as tiles. To ensure nothing goes to waste, the lids of these same drums are repurposed to make doors and partitions within the structure. However, it is perhaps in her project for the Habitat Research and Development Center that Nina Maritz made the most extensive use of unconventional materials in her architecture. The walls are constructed using straw, stone, earth, and even old tires! Once again, drums are incorporated, along with
cans, plastic sheets, tile offcuts, and wooden branches. This building is a true kaleidoscope of the possibilities for construction using reclaimed materials.
It goes without saying that all the projects by the Namibian architect are designed to require very little energy for heating or cooling, thanks to natural systems such as insulation, ventilation, or shading of facades.
Discovering Nina Maritz’s work has shown us numerous ways of building, using all kinds of materials but always with the utmost care in the implementation, details, space composition, and the overall beauty in harmony with its environment.
About the Authors
The architectural heritage of a country is the mirror of its society.
It is from this quote that Agathe Belot and Mathieu Jaumain embarked on an “architectural odyssey” across the world.
Both architects, their reports aim to make architecture accessible to everyone, to make people want to push open the doors of projects, to discover little-known constructions, but also to show that we are all the architects of a place.
In 2022, they set off on the roads of the African continent and created the YouTube channel “Odyssées d’Architectures“. On this general public platform, they publish short documentaries on the architecture of the countries they cross. For two years, their journey takes them from Morocco to South Africa aboard a 4×4 converted into a rolling studio.
Interested in all types of constructions, they show the architectural but also cultural diversity of a continent whose achievements remain too little known on the international scene. Their curiosity pushes them to open more and more doors and they are currently beginning their third year of a journey taking them this time from Africa to the Americas.
You can follow them on their adventures on Instagram and Youtube.
