WORDS Mila Crewe-Brown PRODUCTION Annemarie Meintjes PHOTOS Dook
A slick and sexy machine for living, this Modernist renovation on the Eastern promontory of Westcliff Ridge is an architectural A-lister.
It’s rare in this country that homeowners inherit a building of distinct architectural heritage, especially in a city as young as Johannesburg. So when husband and wife Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, of leading architecture studio Silvio Rech & Lesley Carstens Adventure Architecture, spied the late-1950s house at the dead-end of their lane in Westcliff’s uppermost reaches, they kept a beady eye on its movements.
“What I liked about it is that it’s so simple… We’ve been over-cluttering everything,” remarks Silvio. Still, dense overgrowth concealed the view entirely, and there were those who advised the couple to simply knock it down. Architecture devotees, however, favoured retaining its roots as an American Bungalow, and when they discovered that there was, in fact, a view beyond the trees, they did what any architect would do: they respected the building’s heritage.
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While the new house has greatly expanded on the former footprint and gained a lashing of drama, it’s in keeping with the spirit of the original. “How would a mid-century modern architect design this home today?” was the question that Silvio and Lesley asked. They absorbed themselves in studies of the Googie era, one of the Modern Movement’s scions, which was inspired by aeronautical travel and futurism. Imagine a meeting of The Jetsons and early James Bond dens: Googie homes broadcast formal simplicity, bold geometry and flamboyantly opulent gestures in their rooflines.

With the telltale atrium, rock features, zigzagging roofline and timber panelling all nodding to its Bungalow origins, Silvio and Lesley progressed onto a home that is daring, yet liveable and honest. A long concrete ramp rises slowly from the parking to the upper deck in the spirit of Tadao Ando and the Brutalist movement, while cueing a fascination with the future that Googie architecture championed.
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Material honesty is one of this home’s distinguishing features, tempering its flamboyance by way of oak cladding, honed granite slabs and widely used off -shutter concrete. The other feature is the view. “This house has been designed around it,” Lesley explains. The word “view” is modest when you’re referring to 270 degrees unfolding before you. A rim-flow water feature borders the façade, giving way to an outlook that rivals the sought-after Four Seasons Hotel, whose rooftops can be seen below.
Here, structural noise is minimal, with only a series of slender concrete pilotis emerging from the water to support the vast slab above. A Brutalist-inspired void pierces through the slab, allowing a shaft of light to penetrate, and affording a passage of travel between levels via a galvanised spiral staircase.
Inside, a homage to design’s greatest plays out among the bespoke fittings and primal materials palette. The couple’s furniture collection has grown organically, and features originals from design titans such as Charlotte Perriand, Joe Colombo, Isamu Noguchi and Jean Prouvé.
Upstairs, Silvio and Lesley’s bedroom squeezes every last drop from that view.“This whole house is about living with the elements: we wake with the sunrise, observing the change of colour from sunrise to sunset,” Lesley says as we stare out at a jacaranda-laden skyline. “And the Highveld storms… They are both majestic and terrifying.” | silviorechlesleycarstens.co.za
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