Regular readers of this blog will know that Borana Conservancy has a special place in my heart, given not just that it is a leading light in the kind of impact investment conservation strategy championed by Wild Philanthropy, but also the positive role it played in the education of a much younger version of myself. I was fortunate to have managed Borana Lodge in 1990s and am fortunate today to have the opportunity to support the conservancy.
In this respect, lovely to see one if its newest private houses appearing in The Times’s Luxx Magazine. This month’s focus is design and travel, so no surprise that it should profile Arijuju, a private house that has quickly garnered a reputation for being one of the most beautifully idiosyncratic destinations on JbD’s books. As shared when Conde Nast Traveller first visited, the owner of Arijuju is both private and visionary, and everything about the house is designed for the greater good.
Perceptive and interesting, Lisa Grainger’s piece for Luxx – Wild about it – is not limited to the increasingly enigmatic story of a nameless philanthropic owner. As with Peter Brown’s piece, only perhaps even more so, her focus is the design of the house. Again, without giving too much away, she is especially interested in the fact that it is almost invisible, and that its own focus is not itself, but rather the outside. Like the owner himself, it is powerfully understated, and being so, allows for the championing of the reason why it exists: the wild and the preservation of that wild.
