A contemporary home in the Cape Town City Bowl celebrates the local beauty surrounding it while embracing treasures from the east.
Casey van Embden’s passion for travel, and more specifically her in-depth knowledge of India, led her to form Timeless India Journeys – a specialist travel company.
Casey van Embden, owner of bespoke luxury travel company Timeless India Journeys, and her advertising creative director husband, Dan Berkowitz, fell under Delhi’s spell, having been based there for three years. When they returned to South Africa, settling in sought-after suburb Tamboerskloof, they brought plenty of reminders.
The quirky, if unassuming, 1970s house had a stunning location surrounded by forest and mountainous landscapes. Architect Eric van den Berg was hired to enhance its jaw-dropping views, beginning by adding one-and-a-half floors to frame Table Mountain from the top.
Architect Eric van den Berg made use of the double-volume space to incorporate a mezzanine-level office for Casey.
The dialogue between the double-volume and double-storey sections of the house creates an interesting sense of space, with living happening downstairs, relaxing in the middle family room, and sleeping up another flight of stairs. The house also shares a boundary wall with the neighbouring property, and the added height compensates with more light. The indoor-outdoor connection was extended using glass and skylights and enabling immediate access to the garden—the family room upstairs flows onto a braai patio and overlooking the forest. “Eric achieved amazing things with a challenging site,” says Casey.
Another objective was to showcase the couple’s mosaic of travel treasures. An almost industrial approach, like a gallery, restricts the palette to neutral surfaces with interesting texture—black aggregate, off-shutter concrete… “Colour is an integral part of Indian culture—Jaipur is known as the ‘Pink City’. Most of our pieces are bright or bold—we needed the structure to set them off without fighting them,” explains Casey. As well as considering Casey and Dan’s possessions as space-filling objects, Eric integrated many into the structure, adding to the building’s identity. An exquisitely ornate wooden doorframe from Udaipur announces your arrival, a spiral staircase from Jaipur twisting up to Casey’s study is a living room focal point, and the master bedroom’s weathered blue doors act as shutters, overlooking the mountains.
The master bedroom has the best position in the house. A set of blue doors from India – their weathered effect a nice change of pace from the clean shell – is used as screens to create privacy and cool the room down.
“Colour is such an integral part of Indian culture – certain cities are actually defined by them, like Jaipur which is known as the “pink city.”
Although from scattered locations, these features do have one thing in common: history—a trait that Casey and Dan, despite often having diametrically opposed tastes, fully agree on. Above the dining table in the open-plan living area hangs a chandelier that belonged to Casey’s grandfather. In a similar, although less personal, vein, the blue barber chair in the family room upstairs is an Indian antique given by Casey to Dan as a gift—his favourite piece in the house.
The mixture of décor the couple brought back from India also illustrates the wealth of diversity it has to offer as a country—different regions excel at different crafts, culture, even cuisine. This is something that Casey’s business is perfectly poised to showcase. Her three years in the thick of things made her realise what an incredible and relatively untapped country India is in terms of tourism. Encouraged by her father, who has a travel business centred on African destinations, she started the business to offer clients tailor-made trips catering specifically to their interests. “India can be quite an intimidating place to go if you don’t know the ins and outs,” comments Casey. She removes all that from the equation with thoroughly researched first-hand itineraries focusing on aspects clients wish to explore, be it religion, architecture, or shopping. And it’s the personal touch that sets it apart—the same way that her and Dan’s personal treasures give their home its distinct personality.
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Words — Alice Bennett
Pictures — Warren Heath
