BY
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 20 February 2018)
The Martins' house is a twin to what will be the fabulous CASBAH designed by Uwe Rybin with Herbert Menzer
Retired
German restauranteur Herbert Menzer landed on Lamu Island some ten years ago.
It was apparently by chance. But today, it seems more like fate. For once he
was there, it took him less than a week to buy 62 metres of supposedly useless
land atop a sand dune in the fishing village of Shela.
It might
have looked impulsive, but Herbert already had a plan. “I immediately called my
[life-long] friend Uwe Rybin who’s an architect and asked him to come help me
design a house on that land,” says Herbert whose been working closely with Uwe
ever since.
Herbert knew
Uwe had built gracious homes all over the world, but never before in
sub-Saharan Africa. And never on a sand dune, and never with the stipulation
that Herbert needed the design to have a distinctively Swahili architectural
style.
“So I went
to work, did my research, drafted my design and sent it to Herbert who brought
in local artisans and masons to enhance the Swahili style,” says Uwe who commutes
between Germany and Kenya whenever he can.
Both agree
the construction was very much a joint effort although Herbert has always been the
master mind and man on the ground more months of the year than Uwe. Otherwise,
they both have their base in Hamburg.
That first
joint effort resulted in construction of Bembea House, a stunning four-story
Swahili style home that became the first of six luxury town houses. The sixth,
the Casbah, is still under construction. But it already stands out on the Shela
shoreline as one of the most spectacular constructions, built like the rest
with traditional coral stone, stucco and sand as well as with modern building
materials of steel and nero cement.
But after
Bembea came Fishbone, then Hibibti and Yaha Houses followed by Uwe’s twin
designs of the Casbah and a private home built right next door.
“Herbert didn’t
mind my completing the Martin’s house before we finished work on the Casbah
since it allows people to see what ‘s coming once we complete our work on the
Casbah,” says Uwe who can’t help admiring the garden terraces, pools and overall
elegant Swahili style that he created for Casbah’s neighbors.
Herbert also
hopes to create a new up-scale neighborhood with the Casbah and the Martin’s
house being a central focus of that luxurious community.
Shela is
actually filled with remarkable homes owned by European aristocrats and
corporate elites who come to spend their winter months in Lamu. The beauty of Herbert’s
and Uwe’s designs is that they can be rented, suite by suite or house by house
through Herbert’s company, Lamu Holiday.com. So someone need not be a prince,
CEO or countess to experience the delight of luxuriating on the side of Lamu
where life is leisurely, and the sun and sea breezes have a soothing influence
on life generally.
Meanwhile,
since Casbah isn’t quite complete, construction continues, and Herbert and Uwe
agree to show me around. What becomes clear as we walk from one magnificent
suite to another is that Herbert is a visionary who was able to envision
mansions and mini-castles where others could only see sand.
With five-metre
high first floor ceilings covered with traditional mangrove poles and mangati
wooden beams, reinforced with steel and concrete, the Casbah’s four stories
make the twin-structured site (connected by the pool deck, baraza lounge,
library and restaurant) one of the tallest in Shela.
All the
spacious suites have glorious views looking out on the sea or the elegant green
gardens and splendid snowy white Swahili homes. For instance, the Channel Suite
looks out on the water separating Shela from Manda Island. The Dune Suite
offers a glorious view of the sandy mounts that had once included the land on
which the Casbah and Herbert’s five other ultra-modern Swahili houses now
stand.
Herbert’s
right-hand handyman, Mafreezer tells me a bit more about the Casbah’s
construction. “What Herbert initially did was remove all the sand from the site
and then build the basement out of cement and steel,” he says.
The basement
extends the length of the two sites and will contain the elegant Baobab Suite
which will look out on the garden and ancient Baobab tree that Herbert wisely
refused to chop down.
It will be separated from the laundry room and gallery
that Uwe suggests should be filled with paintings created by the European and
Kenyan artists who attend the biannual Painters Festival that Herbert also
founded a decade ago.
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