The SAIA - KZN Regional Heritage Committee in Durban has raised alarm about the Barrie Biermann House currently under threat of demolition. Robert Brusse (in the chair), together with Rodney Harber, Trish Emmett, Lindsay Napier and Kirk White have launched a national appeal. The heritage community including architects everywhere wish to object to the demolition of this modernist Durban architectural gem.
The present campaign is initially focused on objecting to and convincing the Local Authority to veto the current application for consolidation of the two sites – Biermann’s and the neighboring site – and the rezoning of the consolidated property from Residential 900 to Institutional 2. The latter zoning will permit a broad range of other uses, but will also sanitize the current illegal (unregistered) use of the site for a medical practice and laboratory.
Once this application is 'terminated', the next step in the heritage recognition process will be to get the building provisionally declared. Most of the letters of objection submitted to date demonstrate the reasons for the preservation of the building and site.
Located on Glenwood Drive, Berea, House Biermann was the home of the architect Barrie Biermann, built with love, imagination and style. He forged a sense of the regional vernacular in the early 1960s, the house was started in 1961 and completed in 1962. There were two earlier structures on the site. Barrie Biermann adapted and redesigned the older property to create a unique and rather wonderful home. It is a property that misses the general protection of the...
