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Preserving the architectural fabric of Hermanus
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Writer Hedda Mittner
When well-known architectural designer Nicolette Lloyd and her late husband Ambrose came to Hermanus 37 years ago from London for what would initially have been a period of three years, she had no idea that this coastal town would become her ‘forever’ home.
Nicolette Lloyd with her Jack Russel, Mungo in front of her studio on Station Square. It forms part of the heritage property at 32 Mitchell Street which she owns and has remodelled to include several offices and shops such as the Book Cottage and the Honey Shop.
At the time, Nicolette’s parents had retired to Hermanus and the idea was for Ambrose to join them in setting up a new business manufacturing kites. As for Nicolette, who had studied interior architecture at the Royal College of London, working as a woman in this male-dominated field was at first no easy task.
Nicolette with her team of architectural professionals: Leon Smith, André Snyders, Riaan Venter and Joubert Fick.
“The structure of patriarchal hierarchy in Hermanus was well established and no one was going to take instructions from a woman, never mind an Anglicised one,” Nicolette remembers with a smile. Despite these challenges, she says, in other ways Hermanus was never your typical South African seaside village. “As an international destination, it always had a cosmopolitan ambience, with an ever-growing microcosm of professionals who chose to live and work here.”
Hermanus gets much of its character from the amalgam of buildings in the town’s business centre, and the urban flow through town. “That is the most obvious way in which a town expresses itself; it determines how a town ‘feels’ and gives it a sense place. That’s why new buildings must be in sympathy with their surroundings and remain sensitive to the essence of Hermanus.”
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