The facade of a heritage-protected Victorian cottage in the heart of Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap belies the contemporary extension that’s transformed it into a dual dwelling.

If ever you’re asked to illustrate the Chinese concept of balanced dualism, you could do worse than to drop them a pin at 250 Buitengracht in Cape Town. Approach it from the front, and you’re met with a textbook Victorian cottage facade, replete with wraparound veranda shaded by a sweeping corrugated-iron roof – but walk around the corner and up towards Signal Hill, and the house spills over into a set of contemporary sheds. To the left, it’s flanked by the moneyed suburb of Tamboerskloof, with the historically Cape Malay area of the Bo-Kaap to the right. Inside, the house is split neatly down the middle into two almost identical, self-contained double-storey residences – one with a view of Table Mountain, which can be seen through a bespoke conservatory; the other looking out onto Carisbrook Street, and the Bo-Kaap and CBD beyond it.

“Our clients, Fred Durow and Ben Schoeman, are city planners, and bought the property with the idea of creating a double dwelling and work-from-home opportunity, as well as the option to generate rental income,” says Antony Abate, director at Team Architects. “We wanted to maximise the site’s potential, while being true to our ethics and beliefs in terms of urban design, contextual fit, scale and interaction with the streets,” adds Fred.

After navigating the red tape that comes with renovating a heritage building in Cape Town, Antony, Fred and Ben arrived at a solution: restore the Victorian home to its original glory, then extrapolate the fundamentals of the design DNA into a contemporised extension at the back of the property. Antony’s design was largely informed by the original gable facing Carisbrook Street. After simplifying the masonry gable’s silhouette by bricking up a window and cladding the wall in black corrugated iron, Antony repeated its dimensions in the facades of the shed extension and set of studio apartments that step up the slope of the property. To thread the needle between old and new, elements of the original Victorian cottage – and its historic surrounds – were repeated in the additions.

The property’s stone plinth and steel palisade wall is heritage-protected, and inspired the black steel and stone accents incorporated in the new build. The red bricks make a nod to the crumbling boundary wall that belongs to the neighbouring old military base. “All the clues were present in the old house – the corrugated iron, the plaster, the red brick, the gable,” says Antony. “The Victorian was open to the new contemporary, because the material palette stayed exactly the same.”

In order to meet Fred and Ben’s brief of dual living spaces, a section of the site needed to be excavated to accommodate the two storeys, so Antony consciously included plenty of opportunities for natural light to flood in, most notably in each of the homes’ private courtyards and terraces. The nexus that unifies the two halves of thehouse is a shared office space on the courtyard level – and as far as work-from-home office setups go, it’s a pretty sweet one. The cantilevered cube is bright and airy, thanks to floor-to-ceiling glazing that looks out onto the leafy vehicle courtyard shaded by the canopy of two old wit stinkhout trees. It’s a communal area that also serves the two studio apartments, which have become the passive income generator Fred and Ben had been banking on.

One can’t help but wonder – do Fred and Ben get on each other’s nerves, now that they’re sharing a home and an office? “Luckily they’re two completely separate houses; you don’t have to see each other if you don’t want to!” jokes Fred. “It does help that we’re more like brothers than business partners, though.”

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Ever wondered who inspires our current generation of architects? For Paul Oosthuizen, the fluidity and minimalism of Brazilian architects Oscar Niemeyer and Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s designs continue to stimulate his creativity.

How does one design? It’s a question that’s consumed Paul Oosthuizen since his studies in architecture at the University of Pretoria and University of Cape Town. Creativity is important, yes – but so is execution.

Design needs to be able to stand on its own, but it’s also part of a greater whole. “If I tell you, please design me a four-storey pigeon coop on top of a building, where do you begin?” says Paul. “Do you begin by measuring the size of the pigeon? How far from one another you want them to live? Do you then start the design process with a mathematical, scientific approach? Or do you begin with a vision, and then work your way back towards the logistics?”

READ MORE: The Fall: A Dullstroom Home Designed by Paul Oosthuizen

He adds that good architectural design can’t be separated from the mastery of one’s medium: “It’s one thing to be an academic designer, and it’s another thing to take that idea and materialise it. You need to be able to understand how materials want to be before you can start to manipulate them.”

In terms of a foundational education, both his parents played a key, if somewhat unintentional, role. “My father worked in the then-newly built Trust Bank building in Joburg, designed by Colyn & Meiring. It was this modernist, steel-and-glass building, strongly reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building in New York. My mother worked at the new RAU campus, which was designed by Willie Meyer and was a magnificent, concrete, horseshoe-shaped structure, where I spent a lot of time running around after hours, exploring the tunnels and service ducts.”

Another structure that captured Paul’s imagination as a child was the enigmatic Coromandel Estate Manor House in Lydenburg, designed by Marco Zanuso. Paul’s grandmother worked with the estate’s owner, and the family would visit often during school holidays. “The farmhouse looked like an old stone ruin,” he explains. “It was unlike any residential structure I had ever seen, with stone arches and flat roofs planted with the same veld grass and bushes of the surrounding vegetation.”

READ MORE: Return to Eden: Keurboomstrand Home

Surveying Paul’s impressive portfolio of work of the last 30 years for his own architectural practice, there are definite echoes of the impact of these childhood influences: the organic, curvaceous lines and masterful manipulation of concrete; the showcasing of traditional artisanal practices like carpentry and stonemasonry; the minimalist approach of heroing the essential structure’s aesthetic. Also in evidence is his appreciation of endemic building traditions, biophilic design and unconventional floor plans.

“South America has a rich culture of practical building technologies, from grass shelters and adobe bricks to wattle and daub walls. I once saw a wall made of paint-tin lids overlapping like shingles, which had an almost reptilian appearance,” he says. “It inspires me to use available materials out of context: turn roof trusses upside down; use synthetic countertops for sun control; use dimpled HDPE drainage membrane on formwork to pattern off-shutter concrete…”

READ MORE: Grey Green Blue: Plettenberg Bay Home

As for the allure of biophilic design, Paul remains inspired by the scientifically proven benefits of living in close quarters with nature, from enhanced concentration to an improved intuition. “Antoni Gaudí’s plans flow in a way that reminds more of wandering in a park than transitioning through a building,” he says. “Although he richly decorated the buildings afterwards, his structures are minimalist. The buildings seem to grow out of the earth, as opposed to being balanced on top of it.”

Two other architects whose work Paul greatly admires are Brazilians Oscar Niemeyer and Paulo Mendes da Rocha. “Early in my career, I liked the purity of what Modernists like Le Corbusier did, getting away from the clutter of decoration to get to a bare minimum that’s both elegant and functional – but the Modernists had a mechanical world-view that didn’t resonate with me,” he explains. “Oscar Niemeyer worked under Le Corbusier for a time, but he took his ideas a step further and became much more fluid in his plan forms. He made modern architecture sensual and alluring, even in the great red desert-like plains of Brazil, far from the ocean and the mountains. I’m also inspired by the crisp and often unconventional plan forms, unapologetic use of raw material, and austere grittiness of Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s work.”

But back to the question: how does one design? Through years of refining and honing his craft, Paul has come to the conclusion that the magic happens in that liminal space between the rational mind and intuition. “There’s a lot of meditative time spent in design,” he says. “I don’t move from the place of stillness until there’s inspiration. And to have inspiration, there has to be an intention. For me, that intention is the love of life and our place in the grand scheme of things.”

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Henlock House by Chioco Design is an architect’s vision of his own home: a harmony of fresh air, open space and contemporary finishes that appear the tangible form of what it feels like to sit down after a long day.

First, the 70 sqm 1950s home that was on the property had to be relocated. Next, Jamie Chioco, principal at Chioco Design in Austin, Texas set out to realise the design of a two-bedroom residence for him and his wife. Having already lived on the property for over a decade and had ample time to consider the inadequacies of the previous home, Henlock House was born a vision of contemplation and certainty.

What was once shuttered off is now pooled in natural light. Four custom fabricated four-metre-tall corner windows welcome views into every corner of the home. Lines between indoors and outdoors are further erased by ground concrete floors. Outdoor scenes are transient within; framed by geometrics afforded by the home’s plan of two overlapping rectangles that connect in the corners.

Here, at the rectangular connection, the main entry point takes the form of two sets of sliding doors. Instead of entering at the front façade, guests meander through a private courtyard. The front door is actually at the centre of the home. Upon approach, the transparency of the sliding door systems reveals a layering that ripples through the house and into the entertainment and pool area at the back.

Looking for more architectural inspiration? Check out this inner-city Vredehoek Home.

h/t: archdaily.com

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