branch that its imagined avian creator might have found interesting. Of course the requirements of a luxury lodge don’t practically allow for such minimalism, so tasteful fixtures and fittings have become part of the interior landscape. Since completion, the Nest has been awarded the 2019 Wallpaper Design Award for Best Private House. The ephemeral nature of Hefer’s limitededition architectural pieces is closely linked to what originally inspired his hanging nest furniture — the idea of birth, rebirth and the womb. “The nest is the perfect analogy of a natural birth with security, safety, cocooning,” he says. And indeed his pieces make you feel small, safe and comforted. “They are like giant masks really,” he adds. “It’s very strange. People are often nervous to get in there until you give them permission, and then their muscles change as they jump in. And
then they get all brave. It’s like reversing the womb.” Hefer grew up on a farm surrounded by animals, both wild and domestic, and claims to have crossed many boundaries within the natural world. “We used to have one barn where we kept over 100 ostrich babies at a time,” he recalls. “I’d go in there and because of the warmth of my body, they would think I was their mother and would all jump on me.” It’s memories like this that seeded his ideas for giant, fluffy animal furniture with a strong sense of childlike wonder. After 16 years in the advertising industry, Hefer founded his creative consultancy Animal Farm in 2007. His pieces, from the nests to public installations and artistic furniture, are handmade in South Africa by harnessing skills and materials that are available in the African context.
His own house in Cape Town is filled like a magpie’s nest with objects that he has collected over the years, none of them made by him. “I surround myself with a lot of things that are stimulating. The house is full of opening sentences. Little analogue things that inspire me,” he says. Inspiration, like the odd twig needed to fix a nest, is not something that Hefer worries he will run out of anytime soon. His sketchbooks are full of ideas, collections yet to be made, natural phenomena and shapes he’d like to mimic. “There are so many opportunities. I have so many clever ideas, quickly. You know as the old saying goes, ‘a Boer make a plan’.” THE NEST AT SOSSUS is available to book on a private basis from EXPERT AFRICA. Image courtesy ULTIMATE SAFARIS.
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