Surrounded on all sides by the “green” part of the Kalahari, and cloaked at night in a truly extraordinary display of the milky way, this location is the epitome of barefoot luxury, and as such, we drew our design inspiration from the colours, textures, forms and unique fauna of the Kalahari.

Our brief was to take what was a successful, loved destination and transform it into a laid back yet luxurious environment which was also comforting and authentic. Major challenges were the need to make fairly dramatic space planning changes to fix historic design flaws, that impacted on operational efficiencies. This all within a 4 month construction timeline.

The lodge is set against the rocky foothills of the Korranaberg overlooking the awe-inspiring vast open plains of the Kalahari. The project involved extensively reworking the current structure in order to improve operations and comfort to ensure the guest experience inside the lodge is as exceptional as that provided by nature.

As much attention has been paid to the minutest of detail in custom furniture designs as to creating intimate yet open spaces that connect directly to the views onto the savannah. Out intention was to emulate the ecology of Tswalu resulting in a focus on the small and rare being as beautiful and awe-inspiring as the vast and large surroundings abound. - Photographs by HabitatXR