Right Angles

An interior and furniture designer breathed new life into this historically significant Modernist landmark in Cape Town’s Claremont

- Jessica Ross

In the fashion of so many modern concrete edifices today, greenery cascades down the facade of the four apartments that make up this architecturally significant building. But this block isn’t just another conception of a young landscaper keen to bring a touch of verdancy to Cape Town’s urban jungle. Erected in 1971, it was one of the first additions to Claremont’s suburban scene that smacked of Le Corbusian modernism. Distinctly right-angled and deceptively simple in structure, it was perhaps considered by residents of the stately neighbouring homes to be an unwelcome display of the avant-garde in this predominantly neoclassical setting. ‘You can just imagine it: in the middle of Claremont, with all the Victorian houses, this spaceship has landed,’ says homeowner Ruben Rossouw, who moved into the abode just two years ago.

There are few South African buildings that draw such effusive praise from fellow architects as those conceptualised by Adèle Naudé Santos and Antonio de Souza Santos. The duo is responsible for a cluster of Cape Town’s most admired and studied builds – from the legendary Rowan Lane in Kenilworth to Iona Court in Newlands – all of which is well documented in essays by local architects such as Ilze Wolff and Robert Silke. And while this property is tucked away in a small horseshoe road in Claremont, it’s far from hidden. In fact, Ruben and his partner Fourie Botha regularly open their doors to architectural students who come knocking, eager to get a peek inside the structure they pore over in the pages of their textbooks.