JACK ALEXANDER | ARCHITECT
“You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see.”
In early 2017, I partnered with Fox Browne Creative, to bring architecture fully into the overall design culture of the team. Collectively, we saw an opportunity to craft projects more thoroughly and more conscientiously; to understand the requirements of a project from inception to user-experience.
In our work together thus far, I’ve had the opportunity to craft a large-scale masterplan for an entire private island, build a 4-storey tree-house in a Big 5 Private Game Reserve and rebuild a unique Lodge in the world’s oldest desert in Namibia; andBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge. I am currently in the process of designing and developing lodges in Zambia, South Africa and Tanzania, including a spa with a floating lap pool on the precipice of the world’s largest intact caldera.
My inspiration comes from the extraordinary places in which I’ve had the opportunity to work and to build. My design work is fundamentally premised on its ability to reconcile itself with its context – physically, culturally, and aesthetically. The buildings are all different, but they all follow the same basic principles: always reactionary, always circumstantial. In many ways, I spend my time creating comfortable viewing platforms; beautiful caves; contemporary huts.
Prior to collaborating with Fox Browne Creative, I worked for Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens for 7 years. During this time, I was the project architect for some of the world’s most prestigious and award-winning private islands and lodges including Time + Tide’s Miavana Private Island, Madagascar, Leobo Private Lodge, Waterberg, South Africa, Norman Carr’s Chinzombo Lodge, Zambia and Angama Mara, Maasai Mara, Kenya.