ARRCC has given new life to a contemporary Cape Town home on a beautiful, treed site at the foot of Table Mountain. ARRCC’s additions fuse seamlessly with the existing architecture, originally designed by Antonio Zaninovic, enhancing its powerful connection with the surrounding landscape and magnificent city views. Photography by Adam Letch.
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The most significant architectural additions include a new garden pavilion, which replaced a small open structure, and the conversion and extension of a bedroom on the upper level to create a penthouse main suite. ARRCC redesigned the interiors throughout the main house, including the addition of an enclosed wine room. Outside, an extensive terraced lawn was added.
ARRCC’s priority throughout was to harness the energy of the juxtaposition between the contemporary, clean-lined architectural forms with the powerful organic presence of the mountainside.
“To be in an urban setting, yet with the powerful natural presence of Table Mountain, it inspired us to create an ‘urban resort,’” says ARRCC Director, Jon Case.
ARRCC’s approach to the pavilion’s design extended the architectural language of the main house, especially its raw materiality, and reprised distinctive features such as the chamfered eaves and floor-to-ceiling glass doors to augment the experience of the setting.
The new structure, nestled into the landscape on one end, now floats out from the rocky slope, suspended in the tree canopy. It includes enclosed and outdoor elements featuring a bar, dining space, lounge, pizza oven, and barbeque areas.
Bespoke interior elements include the dining table and the light above it, designed in collaboration with Martin Doller, which combines twinkling lights and hanging planters. Perhaps the pièce de résistance, however, is a brass fireplace designed with metal smith Barry Ashmole of Garage, inspired by a 1920s copper diving helmet, and incorporating genuine vintage ship portholes.
The pavilion is connected to the main house via a walkway, where ARRCC added a boma that draws inspiration from their award-winning design at the Cheetah Plains Game Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve.
ARRCC Interior designers Mark Rielly and Nina Sierra Rubia worked closely with the client, Shari Kennedy, on the design concept for the interiors of the main house. “The interiors are a collaborative vision working with local artisans focusing on the use of materials to reveal their natural beauty and purest form, shaping bespoke pieces that are raw and transforming them into objects of luxury,” says Rielly.
ARRCC’s Afro-minimalist approach sustains a dialogue with the palette of raw concrete ceilings and roughly hewn stone walls.
Project Name: Glen Villa
Project Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Interior Designer: ARRCC
Interior Design Team: Jon Case, Wade Nelsen, Clive Schulze
Interior Decor Team: Mark Rielly, Nina Sierra Rubia, Gabriella Duarte
Anna Katharina Schoenberger
Photographer: Adam Letch
Copy by Graham Wood