A relic worth repeating: Howick architect makes a mould of a cast iron column because the world needs more beautiful things

There may be perfectly adequate pillars available from the shops. Naturally, Nick was not interested. 

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The standard options in Howick don’t quite cut it when you’re an architect with a philosopher’s brain, an artist’s eye and a slight obsession with scrap yards. As a result, Nick’s go-to is to make something better.

This particular story starts with two beautiful old cast-iron columns, acquired from a historic house in Howick. The columns themselves have an even older story: they originally come from a dismantled pavilion in Durban before finding their way to the Midlands, and eventually to The Old Mushroom Farm, arriving on the back of a flatbed truck with Nick already imagining their next life.

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He liked them so much that keeping them to himself seemed a waste.

So he made a mould.

The original cast-iron column was carefully used to create a fibreglass mould, allowing Nick and his team to reproduce its intricate form in reinforced concrete. And just like that, an old architectural detail becomes the starting point for something new. Hello, Crooks Goods.

Making it slow

Behind the scenes at The Old Mushroom Farm, the process is decidedly low-volume.

Each pillar takes Nick and his team roughly a week to make, including drying time before removing the mould, counting the side-quests in-between that come with running a farm. This ain't no industrial production line. It's a small-scale fabrication process happening alongside many other creative and practical projects going on at the Farm.

At that rate, we're looking at a theoretical 52 pillars a year. Which is, frankly, not very many pillars. So if you're imagining a row of these beauties for your new veranda, you might want to get on the waiting list, chommie!

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And what is Nick going to do with them?

He has some ideas…

One of Nick’s architectural schemes currently on the drawing board is a steel-framed glass greenhouse. The concrete pillars would form the support structure for a Victorian-inspired hot house. Every one of Nick’s buildings is an opportunity for making something beautiful.

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Then things get philosophical…

The pillars aren't simply replicas for the sake of reproduction. They're becoming a new architectural vocabulary for The Old Mushroom Farm. One that borrows from the ornate detailing of another era and translates them into a signature that feels inherently us.

The pillars are an example of Nick's broader way of working that has guided The Old Mushroom Farm's ethos: make something beautiful rather than settling for the off-the-shelf version. It's the same instinct behind much of what happens across the Farm's workshops and studios. Small production. Skilled hands. Good materials. The results are artisan objects made with enough care that they'll still be worth having decades from now.

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There are plenty more ideas where that came from. For now, we're getting a glimpse behind the scenes at the fabrication setup, where old buildings, slow-hardening concrete, a fibreglass mould and a healthy dose of Nick's particular brand of creativity come together.

P.s. if the backdrop got you wondering... Yes, there is another set of ex-growing tunnels at The Old Mushroom Farm. They're still waiting for their next chapter- good thing we know a good architect in Howick.

Watch this space.