This bold, angular alteration in Cape Town is a masterclass in the richness, warmth and sensuality of a dark palette.
Double volume floor-to-ceiling glass greets you at the main entrance. “The windows are dark from the outside during the day, and all the frames are dark too, so it all recedes and disappears into the building,” architect Greg Scott points out. The irregular arrangement of the steps will, in time, especially as the plants grow, soften the division between vegetation and architecture. A tree in the entrance courtyard will further integrate landscape and architecture.
The open-plan living area downstairs is, counter to most people’s first impression, predominantly white with accents of black, rather than predominantly black. This monochrome palette, and the uncluttered arrangement of furniture, brings warmth, sophistication and texture to what might otherwise have been a fairly minimalist interior.
The dark colour, Greg believes, enhances the sense of intimacy. “A lot of people say it’s cold and it’s dark – it’s not,” he says. “If anything, it adds a warmth and a richness.”
One of the most distinctive features of the house is the way in which the windows frame and edit the views, and particularly the way in which the wood-panelled, box-like window seats draw the outside in. These ‘box windows’ not only make a cosy spot to read the Sunday papers, but integrate the pockets of the leafy green garden with the house. Well-placed slabs with garden furniture make these pockets of greenery accessible and inviting.
The main living area or lounge is a well-defined space in this open-plan arrangement. All the surfaces are matt – in fact, there’s not a single surface in the house that’s cold to the touch.
“The house is so open, a good 30-60% of the walls are glass,” says Greg. “So every room in flooded with natural light.”
The kitchen is entirely black, beautifully textured and warm to the touch. While black is certainly a base colour, contrary to most people’s first impression, the interior is predominantly white with black accents. Nevertheless, that translated into a uniformly black exterior. The inherent darkness of the windows during the day means the windows “recede and disappear into the building”, as Greg puts it, and the greenery of the plants pops out against the dark background.
“Those wooden-surrounded windows are very special to us,” say the owners. “They’re lovely to sit in, and you get the lovely winter sun; it’s a nice place to chill out and read the paper.”
Greg comments that the unusual angle at which the house was built created planted courtyards and pockets of outdoor space. As the owners put it, the whole house “lives out”, connecting with these spaces so you never feel “caged in”. The planes and angles of the house impart a kind of dynamism and interest to its design.
From the garden, the elegantly cantilevered upstairs pergola adds depth and layers to the westerly facade. “Before it was just a flat-fronted building, and those overhangs created lovely shade, and lovely depth to the westerly facade,” say the owners.
“We’ve got a lot of greenery around us, which is unlike most of the rest of Camp’s Bay, where it’s quite hard and stark,” say the owners. “And it had lovely spots of view.”
“Sometimes we feel like we’re on an island, or some other exotic place because of the palm trees.”
The main bedroom includes a clever, versatile divider that combines a headboard with shelving and storage, and creates a well-defined dressing room area. “As a space-maker, headboard, dressing room storage space and divider, it’s doing quite a lot,” says Greg. More wood-panelled ‘box windows’ frame upstairs views. The armchair is from @Home. The lamp is from Weylandts.
The main bathroom is conceived of as a wet room, so there are no shower doors or glass boxes. “You get the views but you’re still relatively private,” Greg says. The owners add: “We have a double bath with views of amazing established palms, none of which is in our own property. Sometimes we feel like we’re on an island, or some other exotic place because of the palm trees.”
Words — Graham Wood
Photographs — Greg Cox
