outpost in negril MACO 51 By respecting the land, a grown-up hippie creates a free-flowing thatched villa in stylish Negril.

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2 outpost in negril PHOTOGRAHER By respecting the land, a grown-up hippie creates a free-flowing thatched villa in stylish Negril. Catherine MacGillivray explores As a 1970s flower child growing up in the Jamaican beach town of Negril, Joanna Saulter has built her villa Clandestino in a style reminiscent of those happy hippie days. Her family moved to Negril from Kingston and delighted in the freedom and beauty of what was then a simple fishing village with seven miles of golden sand and a cliff-side community where worshipping the sunset was a daily ritual. On an acre of untouched land, Joanna s father Bertram Saulter built the family s first home, which was a wood and thatch loft-style hut that was more art than architecture. There was no electricity, running water was a rarity and Joanna ran wild climbing trees and fishing off the rocks in what she describes as an idyllic childhood. Joanna and Negril have both grown up and the design style that has become the Saulters signature has also matured. A series of cottages erected for the expanding family later turned into guest house rooms and then, in 1990, Bertram and Joanna s late interior designer mother Greer-Ann partnered with music and hotel mogul Chris Blackwell to design, build and operate The Caves. RIGHT The front door LEFT View from a window And Joanna, who is now an owner-director of the fairytale-like resort on Negril s cliffs, built her own home on the property in Her father took charge of construction while she and her mother helped design the villa and create the interiors, which feature natural materials along with bold furnishings and vibrant colour schemes. MACO 51

3 I wanted to create something that was totally private and insular on what was basically a small piece of land with no view BELOW The bedroom RIGHT Living area I admired my father s work immensely and had always dreamed of building a house with him some day, says Joanna. I wanted to create something that was totally private and insular on what was basically a small piece of land with no view. As it was with every creation my father built, the size and layout was determined by an even mix of what it was I needed and what the land called for. The three-bedroom thatched-roof villa and guest studio cottage is an organic free-flowing interpretation of the original Seventies huts. No trees were cut down during construction, except in the most necessary circumstances, and the natural forms in the available land space dictated the flow of the buildings. I had specific ideas about what I wanted in terms of some of the materials, explains Joanna. My father had always made use of the most commonly available local materials, often making even kitchen counters out of something as soft as cedar if that was what was readily available. There were specific features that I wanted to include, like the super-thick walls and the individual bathroom designs. But the main elements of it, which are that there are very few right angles in the surface of the stone and that the roofs are high-pitched and thatched, is distinctly my father s style. In true Saulter fashion, the planning of the house began one evening with a measuring tape and a discussion between Joanna and her father. They mapped out the pool area and the large, airy living room, which was inspired by photographs of Mexican architecture. I wanted to recreate that look with a cool, rounded stone building with extra-thick, moulded concrete walls and a thatched roof, says Joanna. The house is made from stone, cedar and pinewood and most of the rooms have high ceilings with louvred vent panels for ventilation. Joanna, who now spends much of the year in Spain, only added air conditioning after she began to rent out the house. My mother designed all the fretwork and the lattice windows in the passage, and she worked with a young Jamaican artist named Adom Burke who also worked with her intensively on The Caves to design some of the stained- glass windows, the wall treatments and the ceramic and glass floor mosaic in the outdoor shower, she says. Huge bamboo sofas with bright red cushions, which were custom made in Kingston, dominate the living room. I like oversized sofas and chunky furniture in general, says Joanna. I like this furniture because it has a natural quality to it; it isn t too finished and still has its original knots and unique shapes. 52 MACO

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5 BELOW The pool RIGHT The pool lounging chairs 54 MACO

6 Artwork adorning the room is in keeping with the natural theme and includes a couple of wooden sculpted pieces made from what looks like a mismatch of trees bonded together. The space allocated for the kitchen, which is linked to the living area by a breakfast bar, was dictated by the placement of trees. You ll notice a large fig tree on the pool side of the house, Joanna points out. That is a central element to the entire living space, and on the driveway-side, I have several trees that are practically touching the house. The kitchen was designed to be functional, nonobtrusive, fairly open to the rest of the house, but also equipped with sliding louvred panels and Dutch doors so that it can transform at a moment s notice into a completely invisible, totally utilitarian space with its own service entrance. All the bedrooms in the main house feature solid wood sleigh beds and have bathrooms adorned with mosaic tiles. My mother and I did the bathrooms ourselves with the help of a local tiler, says Joanna. He laid the wet cement, we tapped in the tiles, he grouted. There was lots of trial and error. For the master bath, they got sea glass and baubles and created the underwater wall design in free-form. We used many Caribbean design photo books for basic inspiration, but I grew up surrounded by lots of artistic expression (and non-conformity) and so was influenced by my own experiences. I have occasionally dabbled with glass and painting, so the window in my son s bathroom is my own design and all the glass used in the house was hand cut by me. The strong red and deep blue walls in the bedrooms, bathrooms and downstairs powder room add to the drama of this unconventional villa. The fourth guest sleeping quarters are located in the adjacent cottage, which is a bijou version of the main house. Joanna wanted to capture the feeling that the pool was an integral part of the villa, so created a gazebo seating area inspired by waterside cabanas she had seen in Eastern architecture. The pool was one of the first things we built as I wanted the house to then flow around it, she explains. Space was limited, but I wanted something I could jump into, swim short laps in, and hang around in comfortably. Having built her own villa based on the organic style of architecture favoured by her family and Island Outposts, the group of resorts which The Caves is a part of, she wishes other Caribbean developments could mirror her approach. I have experienced first-hand what can be achieved when you build something based upon the land s natural features and use indigenous materials, she says. So many new developments raze the entire land area as a first step to building. I think that is such a shame. MACO 55