HOUSE

Tucked away among a grove of milkwood trees in a small village outside Cape Town, this coastal home blends in with its natural surroundings, offering its owners a peaceful retreat.

This coastal home blends with its natural surroundings, offering a peaceful retreat.

It was a series of chance encounters that led Jens and Marie Glasenapp to build a holiday home in Cape Town’s surfing village of Kommetjie. The couple, who live on the French island of Réunion, first began travelling to South Africa to encourage their three children to practise English.

During one of these trips, while waiting for his family outside Fisherman’s – a popular restaurant in Kommetjie – Jens, a German cardiologist, met Willi, an Austrian estate agent in the area. Conversing in their lingua franca, the two men hopped into Willi’s car and went for a quick coastal drive.

“I wasn’t interested in buying anything – I was just enjoying Willi’s company,” says Jens. “And I certainly didn’t want to live in an estate,” he says, referring to how some South Africans live in security complexes.

An open piece of land did, however, pique his interest. “But Willi said it was ‘complicated’. It was not suitable for construction and had a peculiar triangular shape,” Jens explains of the 388m2 plot, which sits in the middle of a large piece of protected land vegetated mainly by indigenous milkwood trees.

“It’s genius what my brother did with the shape.”

JENS GLASENAPP

Jens’ wife Marie, a French midwife, was equally struck by the property. The couple was determined to turn this “complicated” piece of land into a dream escape for family and friends – and so they bought it.

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 employed for the job.

But, living abroad, neither Jens nor Torsten could oversee the day-today management of the construction process. Local help was needed. Again, coincidently, they met a fellow mountain runner who was a local designer experienced in supervising construction projects. And so Tim Lewis agreed to lend his expertise to designing the doors, ceilings, bathrooms and garden, while overseeing all the finishes.

Yet it took two years for the land to be made suitable for construction and for local permissions to be obtained, before building could start on this “complicated” terrain.

“We just wanted a small, compact one-storey 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 110m2 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 living room to be situated at the very centre of the site, opening to two totally different garden areas,” says Torsten.

The gardens on opposite sides of the house would not have been possible had they used the L-shape some advised them to employ. “It’s genius what my brother did with the shape,” says Jens. “He normally does big projects like university buildings in Frankfurt or Germany’s Ministry of Internal Affairs – never private housing – so the sober lines of this house are influenced by his paredback, uncomplicated approach to large-scale buildings.”

Torsten also designed the external shutters that can close the loggias on either ends of the living space, turning the home into a concealed garapa- clad box when the family is away.

“I believe in naturally integrating buildings with their given surroundings,” says the architect.

The Glasenapps plan to visit Kommetjie at least twice a year to take advantage of their love of mountain runs, surfing and kitesurfing in this welcoming yet quiet seaside getaway.

“The people of Kommetjie are very open, so it was surprisingly easy to make friends to share all sorts of activities,” says Marie.

Free of any fencing, the property welcomes guests through simple wooden screens, used as a border deterrent for people wandering through the extensive garden. “Our home is like an island between all the milkwood trees,” says Jens. “It’s just a magic spot.”

Clockwise from right: A stylish bathroom is shared by the two bedrooms of the ground floor; The master bedroom has spectacular mountain views; The open- plan living area is furnished with soft shades of colour; The fireplace offers the ideal spot to defrost after surfing in the Atlantic Ocean.

From left: The kitchen is a linear, one- wall set- up. “We’d originally wanted it to be all white, but with the grey of the floors and walls, it would have been too cold,” says Jens; Mainly vegetarian meals are savoured around this six- seater dining set.