Marie and Jens Glasenapp enjoy the lock-up-and- leave style of their Cape Town holiday home. Visiting their Kommetjie house a few times a year affords them a similar beach-and- mountain lifestyle to the one they’re accustomed to in Réunion, where they live with their three children the rest of the year.
With the help of Jens’ brother Torsten, a Berlin-based architect and partner at Müller Reimann, they designed a home that would become what Torsten describes as ‘compact, precise and focused.’ An encounter with a huge Danish dog on Kommetjie’s Long Beach led to its owner recommending a builder for the construction, and Barry Smith was introduced and employed for the job. But, living abroad, neither Jens nor Torsten could oversee the day-to-day management of the construction process, and so local help was needed. Again coincidently, they met a fellow mountain runner who was a local designer very experienced in supervising construction projects, and so Tim Lewis finally agreed, lending his expertise to designing the doors, ceilings, bathrooms and garden, while overseeing all the finishes.
A Morsø fireplace means winter holidays can be just as enjoyable as summer ones for the Glasenapps. The grey walls echo the color of the Corcoleum floors, adding a dark, cozy appeal to this warm interior.
It took two years, however, for the land to be made suitable for construction and for necessary permissions to be granted from council before building could commence on this ‘complicated’ terrain. ‘We just wanted a small, compact one-story beach
house,’ explains Jens of his simple brief to Torsten. But his brother insisted on going up another level to maximise the ocean and mountain views. The result is a 110-square-metre home, with a double-volume ceiling over the living area, a master bedroom situated above the garage, and a planted rooftop terrace open to the astounding panorama. Built with a bend in the box shape of the structure, the home ensures optimal enjoyment of the outdoors. ‘The slightly bent footprint allowed the livingroom to be situated at the very centre of the site, opening to two totally different garden areas,’ Torsten explains. These gardens on opposite sides of the house would not have been possible had they employed the L shape some people advised them to do.
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