The ‘White House’ is an alteration & refurbishment of an existing three-bedroom dwelling located on a rezoned and densified erf within Windhoek West’s university precinct, undertaken for a young family of architects. The project responds both to the evolving urban condition of the area and to the domestic needs of a practice-informed household, reworking a conventional suburban house into a more open, adaptable living environment.

The intervention is driven by a reconfiguration of the internal plan. Selected internal walls are removed to dissolve the former cellular layout, establishing a fluid spatial sequence that visually and physically connects the kitchen, living spaces, and a newly defined south-facing front lawn. This reorientation foregrounds everyday domestic movement and strengthens the relationship between interior spaces and the ground plane.

Existing window openings are enlarged to improve daylight penetration and cross-ventilation, while the accumulation of disparate floor finishes from earlier alterations is rationalised into a continuous screeded floor, lending spatial coherence and material calm to the interior. A restrained material palette reinforces this strategy: stainless steel kitchen island tops introduce an ethic of utility and robustness, contrasted by timber-framed reveals and plywood skirtings that mediate thresholds and add warmth and tactility to the living spaces. Together, these interventions reframe the house as a contemporary domestic assemblage, attuned to both its immediate urban context and the everyday practices of a young architectural family.