BRAKDAK : Platdakke in die Karoo -- Gabriel Fagan

Publisher: Breestraat Publikasies, 2008. Eerste druk.

Hard cover with Dust Jacket.

Condition: Very Good.

No inscriptions.

217pp. Size: 27.5cm x 27.5cm.

This book contains photographs (mainly black and white  and some colour) illustrated text printed on heavy matt art paper, with brief notes on flat-roofed vernacular architecture in the Karoo. Taken during the 1950's, they portray buildings and unspoilt village scenes, many of which have suffered severe changes during the last half-century. Although change is inevitable and irrevocable, almost any visit today reveals a deteriorated environment. So apart from the sheer pleasure of recalling these scenes, this book might, in a small way, contribute to a realization of the simple beauty lost, and to a will to regain it.
"The title of this book might suggest an academic discourse, but [the book] consists instead of a few hundred photographs with notes, taken at random between 1959 and 1964. As resident architect for Volkskas Bank in the late 1950s, I travelled extensively across South Africa, mostly in my Piper Tripacer aeroplane [see image], to supervise new work or renovations. Dr Barrie Biermann, writer of the gem Boukuns in Suid-Afrika, in which our unpretentious rural architecture is described, encourage me to use the opportunity to look at this priceless heritage, and particularly at the fla-roofed builddings innate to our dry regions . . . " (From the Introduction)
The Fagans came into public notice for many achievements, not least of them the restoration of the Cape Town Castle (Gabriel) and its rose garden (Gwen), about which they have written.

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