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Top Billing gives you the grand tour of Palazzo Steyn
Top Billing gives you the grand tour of Palazzo Steyn
In a Top Billing exclusive we invite you for the highly anticipated tour of Palazzo Steyn, home of Carolyn and Douw Steyn, with designer Stephen Falcke and architect Wynand Du Plessis as our guides!
If you’re going to Christen your home a ‘palazzo’ it better look the part. Not since the original Italian country mansions which inspired it, has ANY building lived up to its title quite so well as Palazzo Steyn does.
Image courtesy of Steyn City
Perhaps the most astounding feature of Douw and Carolyn Steyn’s palatial, three thousand square metre Palladian villa, is that for all its grandeur – it still manages to feel like a home.
Image courtesy of DBM Architects
The eight hundred hectare Steyn City development it looks over is five times as large as Monaco and yet the lady of the house manages to make a visit here feel quite personal.
Image courtesy of DBM Architects
The Jack Nicklaus designed golf course winds through a parkland of Wild Olive, Akasia and Stinkwood Trees, making for a world class and distinctly African golfing experience. What sets this experience apart from other estate courses is the palazzo on the hill which Giuseppe Plumari was charged with building.
The house had to be a symbol of optimism. As the concept evolved over the better part of two years, architect Wynand Du Plessis delivered a design which is both a piece of art in the landscape and a gallery for art on the inside. Each room feels like a film scene - with Carolyn as leading lady.
Excess irrigation water from the Jukskei River gets released back into the river and around the property, eighteen borehole, closed-loop geothermal heat pump systems were installed. The natural energy from these is used to power the heating and cooling systems of the house. This villa is extremely green - beneath its classic Palladian architecture.
Sandstone from two quarries in Naboomspruit was used for the external walls and once inside, the solid Carrara marble staircase is a showstopper. Marble for the patterned floor was sourced locally, solid African hardwood was used in the doors and windows and all around you is the work of the best South African artisans.
Inside the great copper dome, the triple volume entrance is all light with the star of the show being a chandelier from a Victorian era hotel in the British capital.
If you think your switch-box is complicated, the vast array of crystal chandeliers, picture and mood lighting around the house, includes two hundred and seventy circuits. They are all controlled via keypads which blend seamlessly with the design and complement the décor. Motion sensors also automatically dim or brighten the light when a space is in use.
Out of sight are climate control systems allowing varied temperatures across several spaces and a background music system bringing the perfect mood to forty two different areas.
From Carolyn’s previous homes featured on Top Billing, we recognize her signature favourite colour schemes which fit seamlessly into her husband’s grand, Italian vision. Douw Steyn’s birthday in December marked an incredible journey so far for the self-made titan of the insurance industry. As friends and family know, the Steyn City development has an echo of his first job in real estate. Now he’s creating an entire city.
It comes as no surprise that his library is a place he is most comfortable in. A thirst for knowledge and reference are how a man who studied Theology and Law then went on to master finance, insurance and property too.
It may be Italian in style, with its own Roman aquaduct, but the pool area has a strong, exotic feel about it. One which suggests the far pavilions of India, Moorish palaces in North Africa and stone temples in Petra, Jordan. A feel created by the situation as much as the architecture. As for the cantilevered pool – it is sheer drama.
Image courtesy of DBM Architects
As well as being able to accommodate twelve guests at any one time, the villa was designed with a marble-floored garage to park Mr. Steyn’s many sports, luxury and vintage cars. With the room in such pristine condition, Mrs. Steyn has found her own use for it too.
With a great palazzo comes great responsibility and the lady of this manor clearly gets that.
