19 Victoria Road

Tightly wedged between 2 beachfront houses, between two streets, and between the beach and the Twelve Apostles in the background, this alteration on a sliver of a site on Camps Bay’s Golden Mile, exposes and adapts the inner structural layers of an unassuming two storey house to its context of sea, sand, rock and endless sky.

The brief was to enlarge the existing double storey house for family use and add an additional independent unit above it for rental.

The concept develops the “in-between-ness” of the house. The central body of the house was developed into a series of exposed shelves, open to the mountains and the sea. The extensions on either side were expressed as flanking elements containing the functions which required more enclosure. They presented an opportunity was to create a whole range of narrow engaged spaces, which sandwich the principal spaces on either side and create a dialogue between public and private, individual and family, and utility versus social function.

Publications:

Digest of South African Architecture; 2009, Vol 14, pg 156-157; Picasso Headline, Cape Town

Photography:

ARCHIGRAPHY ©