PRODUCTION Olga Lewis PHOTOS Alana Landsberry/Are Media/Magazinefeatures.co.za

With its generous room proportions and period details such as parquet floors, geometric cornices and stepped architraves still intact, this 1939 apartment building was a good example of residential Art Deco design in Sydney, Australia. And its heritage significance was always top of mind for its new owner, Peter Stewart – especially since he had bought two mirror- image apartments and was planning to merge them into one. “I imagined what might be possible if they could be joined,” he says. “Each had a logical layout and flow, so the design aimed to make as few changes as possible while ensuring that the finished apartment would feel coherent and original.”

Happily for him, the new space seemed bigger than the sum of its parts. Previous unsympathetic modernisations were reversed, mirrored walls were stripped back in the reception area, and bathrooms were restored to original condition. Peter’s intention was to keep the appearance seamless and authentic, without it being a pastiche of a 1930s flat. The finished space retains its pre-war detailing and layout, and is simply furnished with 20th-century bespoke pieces and personal objects. “Curated interiors can sometimes feel stiff, so the aim was a home that’s relaxed, individual and not too considered,” he says.

“The twin chandeliers in the dining room are the only exuberant touch – but the room can take it.”

To visually shorten the linear apartment, Peter created focal points by filling in doorways at either end of the corridor. He placed consoles in front of these, with paintings hung above, so there is always something to look at when moving between rooms. Not that lovely views are in short supply: every room has one, including the bathrooms and the kitchen. He also hung mirrors opposite some doorways to bring views and light into the corridor.

Two factors informed Peter’s selection of furniture, art, fittings and finishes: appropriate scale, and his preference for a clean Mid-century aesthetic. He first drew the furniture placement on a floor plan, then confirmed it in the room using newspaper cut to size and laid out on the floor to ensure the pieces would fit and the rooms felt uncluttered. When suitable furniture could not be found, he had it commissioned and made locally.

When a home doubles in size, the risk is that some of the new space doesn’t get used – but Peter quite cleverly overcame that. “At planning stage, we made sure that a few frequently used rooms were scattered throughout to ensure the entire space was well utilised in the course of a day.”

As you’d expect, merging two separate apartments into a single space that offers the internal flow of something originally designed as one could never be achieved without some challenges. The structural issue of combining the two proved relatively straightforward with the creation of a linking corridor between two walk-in cupboards. This now forms the spine of the apartment, off which all other rooms flow. There was a minor challenge when it came to aligning the mismatched corridor walls – one jutting out further than the other – but a few sheets of plasterboard solved that. “The biggest hurdle was obtaining approval for the project; it took several years of negotiations,” says Peter. “Whenever I felt like throwing in the towel, I was reminded of the potential of the finished place… and of a favourite family mantra: ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again!’ The result was worth the effort.”

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The post Art Deco Sydney Apartment appeared first on Visi.

COMPLIED BY Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Niel Vosloo (Robertson Cottage); Elsa Young (Scarborough House, Umdloti home, Greenside Home, Malmesbury Home, Johannesburg Home Pniel Farmhouse, Witklipfontein Eco Lodge, Eclectic Hout Bay Home); Dook (Monaghan Farm House, Keurboomstrand Home, Montagu Home, Modern Pretoria Home, Minimalist Joburg Home, Oudtshoorn Heritage Home); Greg Cox (Steenberg Home, Modular Scarborough House, Nieu-Bethesda Home, Modern Hout Bay Home, Lanseria Estate Home); Nicolas Mathéus (Menorcan Home, Provence Farmhouse); Paris Brummer (Franschhoek Home, Kerala Estate Cottage); Warren Heath (Klein Karoo Home); Lar Glutz (Salt Rock Home)

Whether nestled among indigenous plants or surrounded by centuries-old trees, these homes invite you to escape the everyday and immerse yourself in a world of natural beauty. These houses from the VISI archives showcase the timeless allure of a gorgeous garden.

Robertson Cottage

For three years, Etienne Hanekom drove past a derelict 150-year-old cottage on his way to his grand old Victorian in Robertson, without noticing the nondescript ochre building. Then, one day, a friend told him that a small cottage near his house was for sale. Upon finally noticing it and entering it for the first time, Etienne instantly fell for both its dimensions and the price.

“It was a forgettable, run-down, sad little house,” Etienne says. “A long, narrow house built of clay with four windows and a front door. Yet I walked in and knew I wanted it. The house had a certain atmosphere that I liked, a feeling that resonated with me.”

There is always a house that winds its way into Etienne’s heart. These are his personal projects. And they are always very personal, even when they’re not meant to be.

As he began to transform the dilapidated cottage, Etienne fell more for it. He mostly works with large spaces, but he has a particular fondness for small ones. By the time he had completed the pink vaulted bathroom, he had sold his much larger Victorian house down the road and was making plans to move into the narrow little cottage.

Read the full story on this Robertson Cottage.

Scarborough House

“I thought I was a city girl – until I spent lockdown in Scarborough,” says South African film director Nicole Ackermann. That this small coastal village just outside Cape Point Nature Reserve in Cape Town is now her home was as much a surprise to her as it was to her family and friends. A place of wild winds and brutally cold water, its untamed beauty is not for everyone – yet it struck a chord with the globe-trotting Nicole the moment she arrived. “My time here changed my outlook and values significantly. Up until then, I was more outwardly seeking for inspiration; now I realise the value of looking inwards more.”

When the world returned to “normal”, Nicole found herself back in Los Angeles for work, but regularly trawling property websites in the hopes of finding a home in Scarborough. “It was quite a revelation that, although living here wasn’t necessarily what I had envisaged for myself, it was what I desperately craved.” So when this house came up for sale, her family were sent to check it out. “I remember my sister sending me a video that she took outside the back kitchen door,” says Nicole with a smile. “Hearing the cicadas and the sound of the ocean made me incredibly emotional; it was like a homecoming. Just like that, it was a done deal – I literally bought it unseen.”

Read the full story on this Scarborough house.

Umdloti House

It was a serendipitous Sunday drive that delivered the current owners to this prime property in Umdloti. They were met by spectacular views out towards the local surf break, and a 400-year-old milkwood standing sentinel in the front garden. “We had been thinking about buying a home in Umdloti for a while, so to happen upon this place without trying too hard felt like the realisation of a dream,” they say.

Although the couple live full time on a farm on the North Coast, the family have a long association with Umdloti, dating back to the early 1900s, when a great-grandfather lived there.“ We have great memories of the times we spent here over the years, and we wanted to emulate that with our own children,” say the owners. “The original house was tucked away behind such an overgrown garden that you couldn’t see the sea, and you had to fight your way through an impenetrable banana plantation to get to the milkwood,” they add.

Read the full story on this Umdloti house.

Monaghan Farm House

This house in Monaghan Farm in Lanseria, on a beautiful spot overlooking a bend in the Jukskei River, began with a bold, Brutalist architectural idea – but the result is an incredibly subtle, sensitive response to its setting. The owners, Wendy and Lukas van Niekerk wanted a home made entirely of steel and raw, exposed concrete, and this spectacular plot of land offered them the chance to build from scratch. Lukas, an engineer, is a huge fan of the work of 20th-century Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, who is famous for his sensitive use of concrete as well as experiments with concrete and steel – and the Van Niekerks’ architect, Enrico Daffonchio, went to school in Scarpa’s hometown of Venice in Italy. The fates had aligned.

Despite what Enrico refers to as its “strong architectural language”, the house they designed together is nestled into the landscape and, when viewed from higher up the hill, is practically invisible (helped by the green roofs planted with endemic grasses to recreate the landscape it’s built on). It is, quite literally, sunken into the landscape to keep its presence unobtrusive.

You descend from street level to the front door via steps that lead to a path through a courtyard. The bold simplicity of the forms – the slim, straight lines of the roof and overhangs – belie the complexity of the way the house is knitted into its setting, with courtyards and “green fingers” all around bringing the landscape and vegetation up to and between the rooms.

Read the full story on this Monaghan Farm house.

Steenberg Home

There are houses in beautiful settings that try to disappear into the landscape. Others like to perch on a prominent spot and lord over all they survey. This one – a holiday home on a big semi-rural plot on the side of the Steenberg mountains in Cape Town – does neither. Its weighty walls and solid masses seem to emerge from the ground and assert themselves unapologetically on the mountainside, yet the indigenous gardens around its edges blend with the natural fynbos, so it looks as if it is being reclaimed by nature. It is undeniably there, but somehow doesn’t seem like an imposition.

Parts of it form big, monolithic blocks, and others are almost pavilion-like – glass-sided, so you can see all the way through the house from one end to the other – but even they have heavy-looking roofs. An oversailing canopy seems to rest on one section but float above another, overlapping. In many ways, the house has no obvious “face”. It twists around, without a clear front or back. It’s a house that, from the moment you see it, prompts questions. Why does it have those angles? Why doesn’t the floating roof touch the roof below? Why is it even oversailing? But that’s the point. “It’s a bit of a mystery,” says its architect, Chris van Niekerk. There’s a randomness about the way parts of the house have been assembled, intuitively, “like a child playing with blocks”. It has a pleasing, comfortable composition, but it doesn’t explain itself or seem to comply with any rigid and ordered logic.

Read the full story on this Steenberg home.

Menorcan Home

Location, they say, is everything – and “they” would certainly give this one the thumbs-up. With the sea on the horizon, and framed by dry-stone walls softened by pines, olive trees and palms, this idyllic four-hectare estate is situated on Menorca – one of Spain’s Balearic Islands clustered in the Mediterranean.

Known for its sandy beaches, warm waters and megalithic stone monuments, as well as a population that loves a good music fest (including the International Organ Festival) and its unique wine-based gin, Menorca is certainly one of the ideal places on the planet to build a family getaway. This property, originally a farmhouse, was once owned by a family from Barcelona, who had the temerity to divide it into three separate flats. Thankfully, the beautiful home has now been remodelled and restored by its new owners, who proved to be far more sympathetic to its origins.

Read the full story on this Menorcan home.

Greenside Home

It takes a good eye to spot potential in a fixer-upper, particularly in a city like Johannesburg. There are some real gems – almost always undervalued – but their qualities are often lost beneath the add-ons that barnacle their way onto houses over time. Christo Vermeulen and Nico Venter are serial renovators. Inevitably, after a few years of living in a house, they find their eyes wandering.

They most certainly do have a knack for recognising the signs that something special might be lurking beneath the surface a nondescript exterior. Christo is a former textile designer turned builder/renovator – with a sideline in manufacturing bespoke features, especially metalwork and ironmongery – and Nico is an urban designer with an interest in the city’s architectural history. Together, they make a formidable team: insightful and capable, with the perfect combination of vision and respect for the innate qualities of a good find.

Read the full story on this Greenside home.

Modular Scarborough Home

As the owners and founders of hope distillery, one of the first small-batch distillers of craft gin in South Africa, Leigh Lisk and Lucy Beard had grown tired of living on-site at their distillery in Cape Town, and wanted a bolthole to which they could escape every weekend. “Both Leigh and I are keen cyclists and runners who love the outdoors, and so the natural beauty of Scarborough and its proximity to the city made it an obvious choice for us,” says Lucy.

Initially, they had bought an old, abandoned tennis court in the coastal village with a view to building on that, but the prospect of a two-year brick-and-mortar build saw them buy an old one-bedroom, prefab home in the village as a stopgap. “We initially saw it as an interim house that would allow us to stay in Scarborough while overseeing the build – but we ended up loving the house so much that it has become our home.”

Having long admired the German Huf Haus (a prefab-style home) as well as the tiny house movement (an architectural and social philosophy that advocates the simplification of living spaces), the idea for something small and sustainable quickly took hold. “We liked the idea of building a modular structure that would blend into the environment with minimal impact, and a container home made sense as it’s less expensive than building from scratch,” says Lucy.

Read the full story on this modular Scarborough home.

Keurboomstrand Home

There was a non-negotiable in the client brief: respect the land. It’s not difficult to see why – the parcel of earth the residence was built on is pristinely beautiful. “The farm is situated near Plettenberg Bay, on a large portion of land filled with indigenous forest, with rivers running through it and a view of the Tsitsikamma Mountains,” says architect Paul Oosthuizen, giving context to his client’s instructions. “There was one patch of invasive wattle on the land, which was cleared – this became the area we developed.”

To find the perfect spot on which to build, Paul surveyed the sloped piece of land by climbing some of the tall trees on its periphery, then decided on the bottom of the hill, so the house could be nestled into the forest and give his client a view of the riverbed. Next up, Simon Hart and his team at No Fuss Construction brought Paul’s vision to life. The result is a home that feels intimately connected to its woodsy surroundings, and secluded from the world beyond. In fact, reaching it is a pursuit that requires visitors to make the last 60-metre journey on foot.“ As you approach, you drive along a road that’s right up against the forest to your left,” says Paul. “You then park in a garage that’s buried underground, get out, and walk along a boardwalk that goes through a canopy of trees, about eight metres off the ground, before you arrive in the courtyard. It offers the guests the sense that they’ve ‘discovered’ a house in the middle of a forest.”

Read the full story on this Keurboomstrand Home.

Malmesbury Home

“There was a wonderful feeling of glamorous decay to her,” says interior designer Etienne Hanekom of the grand old Victorian home he is lovingly restoring in Malmesbury. Languishing elegantly on a ridge overlooking the historic farming town an hour west of Cape Town, the generously proportioned four-bedroom house was built in 1850, when Malmesbury was still a popular destination for its revered hot springs.

Recent history, however, has not been kind. Rapid industrialisation of the town, as well as the ignominious positioning of a busy arterial road right in front of the house, threatened a fate of idle deterioration. Until Etienne stepped in. “I’d been keeping an eye on her, as I frequently used to drive past on my way to visit my parents,” he says. On an impulse, he decided to stop for a closer look, and discovered that the rambling 2 500m2 property took up an entire residential block, and had several unused outbuildings. The main house still retained original, metal- pressed ceiling tiles, timber floorboards and shutters, cast-iron fireplaces, and a deep front stoep so particular to its era.

Read the full story on this Malmesbury home.

Johannesburg Home

In Johannesburg, there’s no mountain and there’s no sea,” says architect Anthony Orelowitz, referring to homes in Cape Town that tend to look outwards, seeking to catch a glimpse of the ocean or frame a view of Table Mountain. “Here, you have to create your own habitat.” And that, at heart, was the basis of his response to Johannesburg’s urban character when he designed his own home in the city’s forested suburbs. Anthony’s firm, Paragon, is responsible for some of the city’s most significant commercial architectural landmarks – but, he says, “I hadn’t done a house in nearly 15 years.” Nevertheless, working closely with architect Elliot Marsden and interior designer Julia Day, he conjured a vision of what it means to make a home in Joburg, at once perfectly suited to the city and utterly unlike its neighbours.

To create his habitat, Anthony turned to the archetype of the atrium house: an internal courtyard wrapped on all sides by the house, creating a peaceful sanctuary at its heart, open to the sky. He calls it a “self-contained oasis in the city”. The house is essentially a series of pavilions, with vast sliding doors and screens that can be opened and closed to reconfigure a mosaic of spaces in a variety of ways. (A new rail system had to be designed to manage the massive glass panels that make up the sliding doors.)

Read the full story on this Johannesburg home.

Provence Farmhouse

One might’ve expected a couple to pick Tuscany as their European home, but it was an area northeast of Marseille in Provence that they chose instead. Dazzled by the beauty of the place and its historical heritage, for 20 years this globetrotting family had rented houses in the area, waiting for the ideal moment to buy their own. A few years ago, they were lucky enough to find a Provençal farmhouse in its original condition that had once belonged to the family of 19th-century French novelist Alphonse Daudet – and its renovation turned out to be a fascinating journey.

Steering the makeover was architect Pierre-Olivier Brèche, head of the multidisciplinary firm POBA. “I was immediately drawn to the wonderful topography of sloping land – it was an opportunity to play with levels of patios, terraced gardens and roof lines,” he says.

Read the full story on this Provence farmhouse.

Nieu-Bethesda Cottage

Most famous for its legendary, reclusive, eccentric resident, artist Helen Martins, and her home, the Owl House, the town of Nieu-Bethesda is as far as you can get from South Africa’s big metropoles. From Joburg, it’ll take you just under nine hours to get to this remote dot nestled among the koppies of the semi-arid Great Karoo; it might be 15 minutes less from Cape Town. And that’s just one reason that made Joburg couple Marc Watson and James Moffatt’s decision to buy a house here a brave one. The other was that they bought it without seeing the interior.

Visiting here as tourists in 2018, they bought the cottage based purely on its charming iron friezes and traditional wooden shutters, only guessing at what was hidden behind the heritage façade. “But we had a good sense of what such a traditional home would hold,” says Marc.

Read the full story on this Nieu-Bethesda cottage.

Pniel Farmhouse

Smitten by its location in the picturesque village of Pniel at the foot of the Simonsberg mountain in Stellenbosch, Dané Erwee and Chris Willemse bought this 2.5-hectare piece of land 10 years ago. The idea was to start a flower farm that could supply their floral retail business, Okasie. “There was nothing here then besides a few gardenia bushes and plum trees,” recalls Chris, a horticulturist. “Our first mission was to build a road that would allow the builders to access the land.”

Architect Henri Comrie was entrusted to design the house. “We chose Henri for his strong ideas, and because we knew he’d give us something timeless,” says Dané, a master florist and landscape designer. “In fact, his answer to our brief for a re-imagined farmhouse was so spot on that, from the moment we received the proposed plans for this house, we honestly didn’t change a thing.”

Set between two peaks, the 400m2 house strikes an iconic pose against its backdrop of majestic mountains. “It’s like a temple that locks the peaks into its power forever,” explains Henri. “The idea was that, by establishing itself as a central place in this huge landscape, the house is able to command a potency far exceeding its size.”

Read the full story on this Pniel farmhouse.

Witklipfontein Eco Lodge

Architect Xavier Huyberechts has a wonderfully poetic way of describing the way he designed the weekend getaway he and his brother, Damien, built on their farm in the Vredefort Dome – the oldest and biggest meteorite impact site on the planet. He wanted to “gently lift the carpet at the bottom of the hill and slide the house underneath”.

And that’s exactly what he’s done. A green roof runs seamlessly from the hillside and over the house, like a blanket of earth that renders it almost invisible from many angles. In fact, the way it has been designed and built means it can – and will, at the end of its life – disintegrate and become reabsorbed into the earth. It’s made almost entirely from the earth, and emphatically for the earth.

Xavier runs a commercial architectural practice in Johannesburg known for pioneering sustainable architecture. With Damien taking on the role of building contractor, they set about creating an earth house using local materials. It may be built of stacked stone, rammed earth, handmade compacted earth bricks and earth bags, but this is no Hobbit burrow. Beneath that green roof is a clean-lined, low-slung, modernist-inspired villa, with lofty volumes and floor-to- ceiling glass doors that slide away into wall cavities and open the house completely to the surrounding landscape.

Read the full story on the Witklipfontein Eco Lodge.

Franschhoek Home

It has been a 21-year-long labour of love. Marti Heyns-Foster admits that, when she first moved into her corner home on a shaded street in the Winelands, it wasn’t her dream abode. But it had good bones, high ceilings, original wooden floors and plenty of natural light, and the young mother knew she could work with the basics. Over the following two decades, with her sharp eye for the quirky and the unique, Marti lovingly curated a sanctuary filled with French-inspired decor and objects. “In my opinion, a home should evolve over time, reflecting your changing tastes as you develop as person,” she says. “A real home is a representation of how all the members of the household live and grow.”

The property is set far back from public view, at a jaunty angle. In front, a formal French garden spills out towards the road, the result of a visit to a château in the Loire Valley that overlooked a striking landscape. “My friend, designer André Carl van der Merwe (author of Moffie), was there with me to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and he sketched out the garden for me, creating an illusion of symmetry.” Today, dominated by two ancient white stinkwood trees, Marti’s indigenous rhus-hedged garden is not yet two years old – and is a genteel alternative to the white pebbles that filled the space before.

Read the full story on this Franschhoek home.

Kerala Estate Cottage

The vast tracts of private land that fan out from the Witte and Bastiaanskloof rivers in the Bainskloof Valley are home to the elusive Cape leopard and impressive birdlife. This is the Kerala Estate and reserve, and being here is a nature lover’s ultimate escape – a chance to unplug while appreciating the fynbos-scented air and the thrill of bracing mountain-water swims.

Keri Paddock and husband Sam understand this appeal, and after purchasing their sweeping Bainskloof property in 2018, set about creating serene living spaces so their family and friends can fully benefit from the surroundings. In fact, their 800-hectare chunk of paradise forms part of the Boland Mountain Complex in the Cape Floral Region, one of nine areas in South Africa designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.

With a clear idea in mind, the couple tasked architect Bridget George of KLG Architects with updating the existing buildings. They also contracted landscaping company Oasis Design to integrate the dwellings into the terrain, and to create unexpected garden spaces filled with fynbos and proteas.

Read the full story on this Kerala Estate cottage.

Montagu Home

The scenic Route 62 o the Klein Karoo unfolds into vivid pictures of rolling rocky mountains and lush vineyards, followed by a slow ascent as you head into the historic town of Montagu, as well-known for its beautifully preserved buildings as it is for its hiking trails. The old town might seem an unusual location for this modern and minimalist home, but it turns out to be ideal for a hideaway in which time stands still.

“Hendre transformed the design into something we love,” says homeowner Martly Calitz of the interior designer who pieced together the significant details that make this home unique – including the decision to paint it mostly white with touches of black, which sets off the warm, earthy terracotta floors beautifully. Hendre Bloem is known for his clean and modern yet luxurious aesthetic, and he very much shared the couple’s vision of creating a home that embodies the maxim “less is more”.

Read the full story on this Montagu home.

Klein Karoo Farmhouse

With a reputation for designing trailblazing buildings across the globe, Greg Truen and his partner Nancy Kashimoto chose to use a different approach when taking on the renovation of a 200-year-old farmhouse. Instead of putting their own contemporary spin on the structure, they breathed new life into the property in the most respectful way. “The idea was always to keep what I found on the farm as pure as possible,” says Greg. Lured by the charming building in Buffelsdrift, a farming district nestled between the Swartberg and Langeberg mountains, Greg embarked on a design and renovation process that spanned four years and would transform the neglected property into a working olive farm.

The property included outbuildings that Greg also saw potential in – the old wine store, for example, would be given a second life as a guest suite. One of the challenges he faced was that some of the previous additions hadn’t been done particularly sensitively and, he says, “I wanted to strip the farmhouse back to what it was, and let it sit in a less encumbered way in the landscape.”

The buildings had been constructed using the poured earth method, and covered with various types of plaster over the years. Greg chose to collaborate with architect Jaco Booyens, who has a particular interest in building with clay and earth.

Read the full story on this Klein Karoo farmhouse.

Eclectic Hout Bay Home

The Hout Bay home that creative director, interior designer and curator Tracy Lynch and husband Frank van Reenen (the equally off-the-charts artist, sculptor and animator) share with their teenage daughter Franny perfectly expresses their unique view on the world. As founder of Studio Lee Lynch and the creative director of Nando’s Design Programme, much of Tracy’s is work is about reinvention; Frank’s is also inventive, but with a side order of dark, playful and wacky.

Three years ago, when they decided to swap their inner-city Victorian home in Cape Town for a spacious out-of-towner, they were looking for a well-designed space they could move into immediately. “A new, modern space is contrary to anything we’d ever lived in before, but as my days are creatively charged, I was hankering after something calm, structured and resolved,” says Tracy. But that never happened. Not long into the house-hunting process, they fell in love with – and bought – a garden… with peacocks, a vineyard and a garden cottage as part of the package.

Read the full story on this eclectic Hout Bay home.

Salt Rock Home

It’s a great house to wake up in every morning, and a great house to dwell in,” says interior designer and artist Lisa Twyman of her home. “It makes you feel free, positive, motivated, excited.”

Lisa and husband Will Haynes fell in love with the plot situated in Salt Rock, on the Indian Ocean coastline north of Durban, because of its geography – so much so that the build became very much about the garden. “We did not want to impose on it or mess up the flow of it too much,” she says. “During the first few years that we lived here, any extra budget was spent on the garden and planting.”

The key principle for Lisa and Will was that the house needed to become a part of the landscape. This meant including elements such as a ground-floor living area that opens up completely to the outdoors, allowing the spaces to be opened or enclosed as required. This “blurred boundary” – as Lisa describes it – between interior and exterior is further enhanced by the fully open-plan nature of the living, dining and kitchen spaces, as well as the application of simple, low-maintenance materials such as unadorned off-shutter concrete, and the balau wood used for cladding and screening where necessary.

Read the full story on this Salt Rock home.

Modern Hout Bay Home

It was 13 years ago in 2007, that New Yorkers Jim Brett and Ed Gray were first enchanted by Cape Town. At the time, Jim was Head of Home at leading US retailer Anthropologie and was on a buying trip to South Africa with local design promoter and exporter Trevyn McGowan of The Guild Group. The three of them embarked on a trip cross-country, visiting the studios of artisans and designers, and formed an immediate bond. “I had never met anyone who could match my passion for handicraft and design,” Jim says of Trevyn.

“As we travelled to South Africa more often, we fell in love with the country, specifically Cape Town and its environs,” Ed says. So, it came as no surprise to family and friends when he and Jim decided to build a home for themselves in Hout Bay, just 30 minutes from Cape Town’s city centre, in which they hope to eventually spend six months of the year. Enlisting the help of Trevyn and her husband and business partner Julian, it was only natural that they would continue their trajectory of working with local designers, furnishing the home with pieces by some of the country’s most prominent names.

Read the full story on this modern Hout Bay home.

Modern Pretoria Home

Our journey on this project started with a phone call, which turned into a fascinating conversation,” says architect Greté van As of meeting the owners of this striking home for the first time. Having distilled their passion for balance between nature, people and architecture into an award-winning signature style, architectural duo Johan Wentzel and Greté van As of W Design Architecture Studio were, she says, thrilled at the opportunity to design a new residence for a like-minded family on one of the last pieces of pristine bushveld in Pretoria.

Blessed with spectacular views towards the north, and with the magnificent Bronberg Mountain as a backdrop, the architects were inspired to design a home that would merge unobtrusively into this very unique landscape. “We challenged ourselves to leave behind the smallest of footprints while introducing built structures into the sensitive surroundings,” Johan says.

Read the full story on this modern Pretoria home.

Lanseria Estate Home

When architect Gillian Holl set about designing a house for the generous piece of paradise she shares with her husband Ivan, an engineer, and son Noah, one of her first considerations was to create a space that did not simply blend in with the surrounding grasslands and Magaliesberg foothills, but was actually knitted into the landscape.

To this end, the Holls excavated to allow the steel-framed building with floating concrete slabs and swathes of glass to settle unobtrusively on the riverside terrain. But estate regulations required all excavated earth remain on-site – and even after creating the grassy berms that hug the garden, there was still plenty left over. The solution? A central rammed-earth wall that forms an axis from the entrance all the way through the airy house.

Read the full story on this Lanseria Estate home.

Minimalist Joburg Home

Edoardo Villa’s journey had been a long one: from Italy to South Africa as a prisoner of war, and from classic realism to abstract modernism as an artist. After his release, he chose to stay on in Johannesburg and for a time lived and worked at the home of artist Douglas Portway in Kew, a suburb on the eastern fringe of the city.

Villa soon became a prominent figure in the local art world and in the great surge of creative innovation that lit up the middle of the century. He was able to buy the Portway house in 1959, and in 1968 commissioned Ian McLennan to design a house for him on the same property, giving him no brief and a very small budget.

It was a time when the symmetries and conventions of old suburbia were being turned inside out. Streets were walled off, living spaces opened up, on to courtyards, bricked patios and a new seclusion. Flow and transparency became all-important, framed in a new vernacular of simple materials and earthy textures.

Read the full story on this minimalist Joburg home.

Oudtshoorn Heritage Home

All Karoo towns have their own rustic appeal, but Oudtshoorn has panache. The flamboyant spirit of the feather barons lives on in its lavish sandstone buildings with their broekielace fretwork – and in its feisty charm.

Interior designer David Strauss succumbed to this charm five years ago while looking for a house to buy for once-a-month getaways from Cape Town. He found a solid old sandstone classic, built in the town’s Victorian heyday, in West Bank. No palace this: a deep stoep, a string of small rooms off a wide central passage, the only flourish a wagon-wheel precast fence. Some renovation was necessary, but the age of the house meant the exterior could not be modified and any alterations would have to be undertaken under the strict eye of the heritage authorities.

“I was a bit lost to start off with because I knew nobody,” says David. “But this is such a friendly town. And everybody knows everybody else, which is very helpful. If you get stuck, you just ask somebody, anybody.”

Read the full story on this Oudtshoorn heritage home.

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WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Cosimo Calabrese, Duotono Fotografia

Markéta and Lars Killi’s renovated holiday home near San Vito dei Normanni is as idyllic as its setting suggests. Surrounded by olive groves, with the Adriatic and Ionian seas just on the horizon, it is easy to see why the creative duo immediately recognised the potential of Villa Normanni’s location.

As an interior architect and designer, Markéta was closely involved in every aspect of the build. “Although conceived primarily as an investment, the project soon acquired a strong personal dimension. My role as the design’s author was closely intertwined with the active involvement of my husband as a creative professional,” she says.

The renovation comprises a newly built ‘main villa’ and a smaller counterpart adapted from an existing lamia – a small, single-storey agricultural structure typical of the region.

Drawing from its context, the main villa, with its white-plastered facade, integrates characteristic regional elements: an external staircase leading to a walkable roof; softened edges; a chimney and pillars in traditional forms; walls of local tufo stone; reed-covered shading; and floors of pietra Leccese. These details embed the architecture naturally into its olive-grove surroundings. The palette reinforces this relationship, with green-grey window frames set against the luminous white forms.

Designed with privacy and comfort in mind, the villa boasts three en-suite bedrooms and a central living space that opens onto the dining and kitchen area. Supporting facilities, such as the laundry and storage, are discreetly set apart.

Inside, natural materials such as wood, linen, rattan and stone define the spaces. These diverse textures and tones create an understated yet inviting atmosphere.

The smaller villa functions as a private apartment with a living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Like the main villa, its architectural treatment deliberately evokes the impression of a lamia.

Reflecting its recreational purpose and Mediterranean climate, the living spaces of both buildings extend outdoors through a series of complementary features – pergolas, verandas, an outdoor kitchen, a fireplace terrace, a sun deck with a pool and covered parking. urbaninterior.cz | villanormanni.com

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WORDS & PRODUCTION Steve Smith PHOTOS Greg Cox

It was a case of joining the dots for architects Robert Silke & Partners. The building occupies a corner with, on one flank, The Flamingo – a neo-Bauhausian apartment block they had designed in 2023 – and on the other, Mimosa Court, a Sea Point grand old lady that’s been revered by Robert throughout his career. Designed by Loris Pagano in the 1950s, the apartments in this stately, Deco-flavoured building remain highly sought-after.

“It was a tremendous opportunity, and a responsibility,” admits Robert. “Mimosa is an amazing building – and then you’ve got The Flamingo, which is obviously important to us. How do you join the two? How do you complete the corner?”

Adding a Pascal or two of extra pressure was the fact that the new building had to accommodate both a 60-room hotel – The Cole – and 60 apartments under the name Dolce Vita. Project developers Paul and Saul Berman of Berman Brothers Group insisted that each have a separate visual identity, and the proprietor of the hotel, Paul Kovensky of the Kove Collection, wanted his hotel rooms to all have sea views – a challenge, given the building site on Main Road was a block behind the seafront Beach Road.

Robert’s solution was twofold. The first part required swivelling the rooms on the Mimosa Court side at 45 degrees, so they’d all look over the legendary La Perla restaurant and enjoy views of the ocean, effectively turning a Main Road hotel into a Beach Road hotel. “Greedy for the sea” is how Robert describes The Cole’s facade. “My old boss, Louis Karol, was my hero,” he says by way of explanation. “In 1990, he built The Odeon – a Pomo apartment block right next door. For me, it was the first building on Main Road that decided, ‘I’m not actually on Main Road; I’m on Beach Road, and I don’t care what you say.’ And it worked. Louis made it exuberant, gave it glass balustrades, curved it, painted it white. White was the colour of Beach Road. So when this particular project came along, we were adamant that it would do the same.”

The second part was to design a building of two halves. While The Cole keeps its eyes on the ocean, the Dolce Vita apartments gaze over Main Road towards Signal Hill and Lion’s Head. “The Flamingo spoke a language of verticals, so we decided to make the Dolce Vita a language of horizontals. My design partner Alex Geh didn’t want it to be a mindless extension of another building.”

What Robert Silke & Partners had no say in was the interior design of the hotel. Paul wanted autonomy inside his hotel, and outside of creating the interior configuration – where the rooms/bathrooms/corridors would go – he could do whatever he liked. “I wanted a destination that speaks to travellers who are deeply attuned to design, who appreciate art, music and a strong sense of atmosphere,” he says. “The idea was to build a sanctuary amid the energy of one of Cape Town’s busiest neighbourhoods.” For The Cole, the brief was about establishing tranquillity – a timeless palette, calming forms, warmth balanced with luxury that guests would feel immediately upon arrival. It needed to be elegant, layered, and emotionally resonant rather than trendy.

Interpreting that brief were Aidan Hart and Phillip Wyatt, founders of InHouse Design Studio. For them, Paul’s vision was rooted in timelessness. “We approached The Cole with a sense of permanence in mind, balancing contemporary refinement with subtle nods to the great hotels of the past,” explains Aidan. “The aesthetic is serene and composed, defined by a muted palette, rich textures, and classical detailing layered into a modern framework. Materiality also shapes the experience – marble finishes, crafted timber elements and refined ceiling treatments, such as the lowered ceiling in the Script bar to enhance intimacy, all contribute to the sense of warmth and connection.”

For PauI, the InHouse team completely nailed the tranquillity brief – especially in the lobby. “It sets the psychological tone for the entire hotel,” he says. “The organic curves, luxurious marble, layered textures, fluted stone meeting warm timber flooring, and careful consideration of sound and light all work together to create an atmosphere that’s simultaneously dramatic and intimate.”

And so The Cole/Dolce Vita presents a fitting conclusion to our recent run of Modernist homes. It’s the work of an architectural maverick who, like the others feature in those articles, has designed a building respectful of its location – one that adds a fresh aesthetic layer to the greats that preceded it.

Robert Silke

Over the past five years, Robert Silke’s influence on Cape Town’s commercial architecture has been immense. Not only have his bold Art Deco and Modernism-infused designs brought a fresh aesthetic to a series of apartments and city hotels, they’ve also sparked a wave of similar efforts from other architects that have softened the default rectangular glass boxes of the Mother City’s urban landscape. Founded in 2015, the partnership of Robert Silke, Rob McGiven and Alex Geh has since delivered iconic buildings such as Tuynhuys and The Flamingo apartment blocks, Tropicana and ANEW hotels, Citadel’s head office, and now, The Cole/Dolce Vita. And, happily, more are under construction. | robertsilke.com

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WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Serena Eller/Ellerstudio

Located within a character-filled residential building, the apartment was purchased by the owner more than thirty years ago and, over time, fell out of step with its occupant’s lifestyle. The rooms were small and disconnected, lacking the social atmosphere the owner had envisaged. Local architecture studio STUDIOTAMAT was brought in to improve the flow and breathe new life into the interiors.

“The key focus of the project was to correct what the client described as ‘the most significant mistake’ of the house’s previous life: the downsizing of the kitchen. We reversed that logic, transforming it into the engine of conviviality – a dynamic volume from which movement can be observed, and the life of the house can be joined without ever feeling apart from it,” says Valentina Paiola, an architect at STUDIOTAMAT.

On entry, the apartment reveals itself through a continuous sequence of rooms connected by visual and physical thresholds. At the centre lies the kitchen – the heart of the home – enclosed by custom-made burgundy-glazed partitions.

It is the material and visual choices that create a sense of flow throughout the apartment. The original panelled parquet flooring has been carefully restored and runs uninterrupted across the space, while above, a fine burgundy line traces the walls, marking their height. The apartment’s original geometry is embraced rather than concealed: structural columns are integrated into custom oak joinery with bookshelves and built-in seating, transforming a constraint into a functional element that organises space and encourages interaction. Mario Bellini’s Camaleonda sofa in green velvet and bespoke benches upholstered in Relief fabric by l’Opificio echo the geometry of the kitchen’s terrazzo floor, introducing a motif that reappears in a different chromatic variation in the reading room. The custom terrazzo flooring, with its geometric pattern, adds another layer of continuity between surfaces and furnishings.

The dining room acts as a visual break. The table and vintage Libellula chairs by Giovanni Carini occupy a room visible through reeded glass and burgundy metal partitions that separate without enclosing, allowing natural light to move freely throughout the apartment.

The reading room, a more intimate space, houses the owner’s extensive book collection. Here, deep tones and tactile finishes help to create a secluded, quiet atmosphere.

In the bedroom, large bespoke oak wardrobes wrap the space, incorporating central panels upholstered in Filigrana fabric by l’Opificio. In contrast, the rear wall is finished in Harlequin’s Elsworthy Wide Width wallpaper, whose subtle organic pattern forms a backdrop to a Flou bed in ochre velvet – a chromatic accent that echoes the tones of the living spaces.

“The challenge was to give a home to thousands of accumulated books. We were not interested in creating an undifferentiated open-plan space, but rather a tailored sense of fluidity. From the custom terrazzo to the oak joinery embracing the structural columns, every detail was conceived as a prototype allowing the memory of Flaminio to coexist with a new everyday dynamism,” says Valentina.

What emerges is a home that adapts naturally and welcomes those who enter – a convivial space that holds memories while making room for new ones. | studiotamat.com

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PHOTOS Elsa Young

Johannesburg-based architecture practice Hubo Studio, which we’ve featured in VISI numerous times, has been named a finalist in three categories. It is one of just five firms globally shortlisted in the Best Small Firm category, placing the studio among the most impactful emerging practices worldwide.

In addition, the studio’s flagship project, the Redhill Early Learning Centre, has been recognised on the global stage. It has been selected as a finalist in the Architizer A+Awards Educational Interiors and Kindergarten categories.

The Redhill Early Learning Centre, located in Johannesburg, is widely recognised as a pioneering educational environment. Designed around principles of child-centred learning, the project reimagines the school as a “mini city” – a network of interconnected spaces that promote curiosity, independence and collaboration. Its central piazza, vertical ateliers and seamless integration of indoor and outdoor environments create a dynamic landscape for early childhood development.

“This recognition is incredibly meaningful for us,” said Asher Marcus, Founder and Lead Architect of Hubo Studio. “It reflects not only our work, but a broader belief that architecture can shape the way children learn, think and grow. To be representing South Africa on this platform is something we are deeply proud of.”

Voting for the Popular Choice Award opens on May 4 and runs until May 15, allowing the global public to select a winner in each category. Supporters can vote once per day. The winners of the Architizer A+Awards will be announced in June 2026. | awards.architizer.com

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WORDS Annette Klinger PRODUCTION Steve Smith PHOTOS Greg Cox

There are many reasons why house Stekhoven is special. Location, location, location are the first three. Situated in the suburb of Newlands, it has a front-row seat to the full parade of natural splendours at the foot of Table Mountain’s eastern slopes. River frontage, burbling spring, tranquil pond, private waterfall, close-up mountain view? Check, check, check, check and check. In short, it’s the type of site that makes Cape Town property developers’ hearts flutter.

Reasons four and five relate to the residence itself. The house was designed by renowned architect couple Adèle Naudé Santos and Antonio de Souza Santos during what’s described as their golden era in South Africa between 1968 and 1973, before both went on to achieve starchitect status in the US – albeit each in their own right, after their separation in the 1980s. Along with six other residences and two apartment complexes in the Southern Suburbs, House Stekhoven forms part of the Santoses’ limited-edition portfolio of South African architecture, and its design (as well as the highly desirable plot it occupies) has secured it Grade IIIA status – the highest local heritage grading.

But perhaps the most special thing about it is the fact that it’s still occupied by the same residents who commissioned it in 1971 – Mike Stekhoven and his wife Penny. “We were living in a cottage with our four children, and we realised it was getting too small,” says Mike. “I opened up the property section in the newspaper and saw a plot in Newlands for sale. I offered 80% of the asking price, which I won’t mention, because today you can maybe buy a good meal with it… An hour later, the offer was accepted. The next day, my phone was ringing off the hook with people who’d seen the plot asking me to name my price.”

The son of an architect himself, Mike wanted a Modernist house, having admired architect Gawie Fagan’s House Raynham around the corner. “I went to university with the chairman of the Cape Institute for Architecture, David Jack; I told him I’d bought a beautiful piece of land, I wanted to build a Modernist house, and I asked for his suggestions for the best architects,” he says. “At the top of his list were Adèle and Antonio de Souza Santos.”

Beyond knowing what he wanted, Mike’s brief was quite generous, the only specifications being that the house should be designed around the view, and the layout oriented around the kitchen, where the family loved spending time together. “When you go into the kitchen, you’ll note it has magnificent views of the garden,” he says. “The layout of the house, the way it worked, was what we wanted. The whole thing has worked from day one.”

The double-storey floor plan is a squashed “L”, with the inside of the letter predominantly glazed and oriented towards the mountain, and the outside comprising a bagged-brick facade punctuated by cylindrical projections. An iconic design aspect is the north-west facade’s concrete balcony and loggia, which echo the curves of the mountainous view and shade the interior from the harsh northern glare.

While the design the architects came up with has been widely cited in curriculums and publications for its technical mastery and distinctive sculptural form, it was also created with small children in mind. Neighbouring each other in a step formation, what used to be the kids’ rooms all open onto the balcony, where the undulating design of the loggia shepherds you towards the exterior spiral staircase to the right, rather than the master suite on the left, where the line veers sharply in a rectilinear direction, offering a tailor-made escape route for the kids when they were growing up.

Upon completion in 1972, the house generated considerable interest locally – and further afield. “Within a year of building, people were asking to see the house, and universities were bringing classes and groups of visitors from overseas,” recalls Mike. “It was lauded from the get-go.” More than half a century later, the building shows no signs of ageing – and the land it sits on remains highly desirable, with new projects continuing to reshape the Newlands landscape. “We’ve lived here for 50 years,” Mike says. “We’ve had a marvellous time. We’ve loved the house. We’ve loved the garden. Our hope would be that whoever gets it after us will value it to the same extent, and not want to touch anything. It certainly deserves that.”

Adèle Naudé Santos and Antonio de Souza Santos

Adèle and Antonio’s early collaboration in South Africa between 1968 and 1973 shaped a thoughtful, socially responsive approach to modern architecture. Working during a period of political tension and rapid urban change, they engaged with questions of climate, community and cultural context. Their South African work laid a rigorous intellectual foundation that later propelled both to stellar careers in the US, where they became respected figures in architectural practice, teaching and critical discourse. Adèle is the principal architect at Santos Prescott and Associates, and served as the dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. Antonio is Professor Emeritus at New Jersey Institute of Technology. | santosprescott.com

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WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Montse Capdevila

The renovation of La Fusteria (Catalan for ‘carpentry’) in Alt Empordà is a perfect example of how architecture can update and extend a building’s life without compromising its character or heritage.

The Catalonia-based architecture practice Clara Crous Arquitectura was tasked with restoring and adapting the space, transforming it into a home designed for family gatherings and holiday rentals.

The two Catalan vaults on the ground floor – a typical feature of traditional workshops in the region – served as the primary spatial catalyst for the renovation. To improve flow and functionality without compromising the building’s identity, the architects consolidated daytime living on the ground floor, relocating the kitchen adjacent to the living area to form an open space that unfolds beneath the vaults. The more private spaces, such as bedrooms, bathrooms and a small terrace, are accommodated on the upper floors.

Materiality also plays a central role in preserving the building’s character. The original walls were restored with lime mortars and plasters, which allow the masonry to breathe while bringing light and texture to the interiors. The restoration of handmade toba floors and artisanal tiles further reinforces the connection to traditional materials and craftsmanship.

As a result of the sensitive renovation, La Fusteria emerges as a comfortable, contemporary home shaped by its storied past. | claracrous.com

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PHOTOS Supplied

What began as a meeting between like-minded designers has evolved into a collaboration that brings a distinctly South African perspective to one of the world’s most influential design stages.

Cape Town-based studios SAOTA and OKHA, together with YARDCOM, a global leading supplier of outdoor furniture, have conceived an immersive spatial installation for Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 that explores architecture, interiors, furniture, and landscape as a single integrated system. This marks the first time a South African architecture practise will be designing a pavilion at the prestigious showcase.

Designed by SAOTA principals Greg Truen and Dani Reimers, with team members Lu Ke and Zander Deysel, the pavilion draws on the culture of outdoor living that characterises many South African homes, presenting a spatial experience that prioritises movement, proportion, and atmosphere.

“Rooted in the ideas behind SAOTA’s Kloof House, the pavilion expresses the belief that architecture should operate as an open system rather than a closed object. Layered, interconnected spaces create a dialogue between people, building, and landscape, deepening the connection to place,” says Greg Truen.

For the pavilion, OKHA has developed a bespoke furniture collection for YARDCOM titled ‘Forma Lenta‘. Developed through OKHA’s Design Under License model, the collection brings the studio’s architectural design language into an outdoor context.

The collection includes sofas, armchairs, daybeds, and tables, conceived to move seamlessly between interior and exterior environments.

Defined by grounded forms and a quiet material refinement, ‘Forma Lenta’ establishes a measured dialogue with the architecture and reinforces the pavilion’s emphasis on cohesion and restraint. “The pavilion allows the furniture to be experienced in relation to space, light and movement, rather than as isolated pieces,” says OKHAs creative director Adam Court.

A defining feature of the collection is its use of bronze-finished, gunmetal, and soft-gold aluminium, an uncommon choice in outdoor furniture. “It allowed the work to move beyond a purely performance-driven expression,” explains Adam. Combined with refined etched surface treatments, the material introduces depth, patina, and a subtle interaction. “The etched finish softens the surface and changes how it interacts with light, so the pieces shift subtly over time. That introduces a sense of duration – something closer to architecture or even artefact than conventional outdoor furniture,” he adds.

For those heading to Milan for Salone del Mobile.Milano, you’ll find the collaborative pavilion in Hall 18 from 21–26 April 2026. saota.com | okha.com | yardcom.net

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WORDS Annette Klinger PRODUCTION Steve Smith PHOTOS Paris Brummer

“I’m a cinematographerI, so my whole life is about looking at things and finding the best angle to make them beautiful,” says Johannes Pieter Nel, owner of a Mid-century Modern residence designed in 1958 by the late APS Conradie – hailed by some as South Africa’s answer to American architecture great Frank Lloyd Wright. “Being able to wake up and live in a space that aesthetically stimulates me 24 hours a day is very special.”

While Johannes was immediately drawn to the retro sensibilities of the house when it came on the market, he only learnt about its architect from the former owners, after which he did a deep dive into Conradie’s prolific Modernist oeuvre. It’s one that encompasses public works such as libraries, schools and police stations – but he especially earned renown for his Dutch Reformed churches and residences. “I started visiting some of the houses and churches he built, including his first church in Rawsonville, which is very similar to this house,” says Johannes. “There’s a very churchy, cathedrally kind of vibe to many of his earlier houses, I think because he started out designing churches.”

Beyond experiencing the house on a personal level – the beauty of its intricate brick- and woodwork, the rhythm of its oblique angles, the movement of sunlight through its many feature windows – Johannes didn’t know much about its specific history until he was contacted by the Cape Town Heritage Foundation, who requested that the building be included in an APS Conradie architecture tour. The resulting tour more than delivered on anecdotal gems, such as the fact that the five-bedroom house was commissioned by a Dutch Reformed minister, and that the splayed walls in the open-plan living space were purpose-designed to accommodate his organist wife’s electric organ. “On the day, one of the older architects attending approached me and told me his father used to do all the carpentry for APS Conradie. He recalled how he used to sit on his dad’s lap while he was working on his commissions, and actually became quite emotional.”

It’s easy to see why. The woodwork in the house – from the ramp balustrades and the window frames to the panelling and joinery – is finished immaculately, bringing a warmth to the design that would be difficult to replicate with another material. It’s also an inextricable hallmark of Conradie’s works that speaks to his meticulous nature.

Johannes’s keen eye for detail – and nose for a Facebook Marketplace bargain – served him well when it came to furnishing his home with an enviable collection of Mid-century finds. “If I wasn’t in the film industry, I’d definitely be in the antiques industry, because I’m addicted to driving to small towns and discovering pieces that I find aesthetically beautiful. I’ve gradually filled the space with a combination of Mid-century furniture and more contemporary pieces, so it doesn’t feel too antiquey.”

Owning a period home that seemingly doesn’t have a bad angle has had its perks for Johannes, who’s used it as a filming location for everything from a pizza commercial to a murder-mystery series. Asked to frame his perfect shot, he thinks for a beat before answering: “The swimming pool area faces west, where the sun sets. Around 6pm, for about 15 to 20 minutes per day, the sun filters through the blinds and makes these warm sun stripes that fill the entire ramp area, where my dogs are usually lying.”

You can almost imagine it – the sun setting, the shadows getting longer, before darkness eventually envelops the house and the scene fades to black…

Albertus Petrus Snyman “APS” Conradie

(16 November 1925 – 26 December 1999)

Known for his visionary, organic approach to Modernism, APS was a devout Christian all his life. He overcame a speech impediment to study architecture at the University of Cape Town, and graduated in 1951 with distinction. His work – especially his houses and churches in Cape Town – blended clean modern lines with sensitivity to landscape, climate and natural materials, drawing inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright while forging a distinctly South African idiom. It’s accurate to say that Mid-century Modern architecture was championed in South Africa’s white Afrikaans community, and in line with the National Party’s promotion of a more progressive Afrikaner image. As a fierce patriot and an ardent supporter of the Afrikaans language, APS was at the architectural forefront of that.

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