Bakery @ La Motte

With one of the last remaining working watermills in the country in close proximity, the new bakery links appropriately into the mill, flour, bread narrative of the estate.

The addition of a new bakery and seating area linked to the Jonkershuis has been exceptionally well handled. The concept of making the footprint of the new building correlate to a typically historical transformation of Cape Dutch buildings into an H shape has made the scale of the addition and the resultant courtyard spaces between the old and new seem just “right”. This rigor has been taken through to the height of the building which is restricted to the thatched eave of the existing, with positive effect.

The strategy of juxtaposing a contemporary building with the old works effectively to enhance the significance of both. The new building is however polite enough, and restrained enough, to be deferential to the old building, its translucency allowing views through it to the Jonkershuis from across the lawns. This dematerialization is the building’s charm. It is however anchored visually at one end by the oven, which plays appropriately on the form of a “komyntjie” or projecting oven of a Cape Dutch house. Other well considered links in taxonomy to the old building are the stone plinth walls and the poplar roof beams and wide plank ceilings. The consistently careful detailing, both inside and outside the building, reflects the clipped simplicity of the “werf” complex as a whole.

The bakery, with its subtle link to the Jonkershuis, has been delicately handled to produce a refined and excellent building.