REBUILDING A CLASSIC

重新演繹 經典蛻變

38+ PAGES OF INSPIRING HOMES FROM HONG KONG, TAIWAN, THE PHILIPPINES, PARIS AND CAPE TOWN

CapeTown-based magazine editor, stylist and interior designer Laureen Rossouw first saw this house five years ago. She and her husband Koos were about to move out of their City Bowl apartment, and she spotted a picture of ‘a dilapidated house with classic Bauhaus lines’ in the newspaper. “I thought it might be a bad picture or wishful thinking,” she says, but she rapidly made her way to the house, which was in the ideal location in the City Bowl suburb of Oranjezicht, on the edge of one of Cape Town’s most charming parks.

As soon as she saw the characterful, mid20th-century building, which most definitely did have Bauhaus “bones”, Laureen was smitten. “I immediately phoned Koos to tell him I had found my dream house and he loved it too, although when he saw how much work there was to do, he couldn’t hide his disappointment,’ she says. It took a lot of persuasion to convince him, she adds – although not that much, it seems, since ‘at 3pm on the same day, we signed (the offer).”

身兼雜誌編輯、造型師和室內設計師，來自南非開

普敦的Laureen Rossouw，五年前和丈夫Koos搬出位於City Bowl的公寓，無意中在報紙上看到一座簡約、高冷、幾何感強烈設計的破舊房子照片，一見鍾情。

「我在想自己可能是一廂情願。」Laureen回憶道。

這幢20世紀中葉建築內外都充滿著極簡建築風格Bauhaus的影子。「我立即打電話給Koos，跟他說我

找到了夢寐以求的房子，他也很喜歡，當他知道房子的狀況，需要花上一段時間去處理時也失望過，但最後還

是決定了在當天下午3點就簽約。」

Laureen一家一直住在開普敦市中心，居於其

中一幢最具標誌性的裝飾藝術建築物中，幾年前更由

Laureen親自翻新。相對於舊居，新居的位置顯然有

些不便。「以前，購物只需幾小時，搬到新居後一切

都改變了。這是迄今為止最大的挑戰。」Laureen表示，新居顯然需要進行全面翻新，以適應21世紀的生活，故此Laureen和女兒Renée共同構思新居的規劃和建築工作。Renée是一位受過培訓的建築師，也是一位專業設計師，曾參與2019年IKEA collection ÖVERALLT的設計工作。

Laureen finishes her tale with a characteristic flourish: “We always buy everything in a few hours and deal with the consequences later. In this case, the biggest challenge so far.” The Rossouws had been living in the very centre of the Cape Town CBD, in an apartment situated in one of the city’s iconic Art Deco buildings that had been spectacularly renovated by Laureen some years before. In this new home, she says, “the lines were there; it was the layout that was unpractical. It clearly needed a thoughtful update to adapt it for 21st-century living.”

And so began a lengthy process of planning and building work, conceived by Laureen in partnership with her daughter Renée Rossouw. Renée is an architect by training, and an acclaimed designer who in 2019 was one of a group of young African creatives who collaborated on furniture giant Ikea’s Överallt collection.

As soon as you’re inside the house now, it’s impossible not to be captivated by the visual feast created by the classic 20th-century furniture, authentic design objects and special artworks that fill the interiors. But what really makes Laureen’s painstakingly curated collection shine is the way it fits into the context of the reworked spaces.

Laureen將不同元素融入大改造後的空間，擺滿20世紀風格家具、設計家飾

及藝術品。

Renée解釋，房子外觀融合中世紀和裝飾藝術風格，不過室內則有些混亂，空間及採光不足，幾乎需要砍掉重練。因此Laureen和Renée母女將面向花園和公園

的廚房打造成一個高樓底空間，並在其他位置增添更多玻璃，包括飯廳的偌大圓形窗、天窗、室內玻璃和金屬門。她說：「窗戶把大量自然光引進室內，希望把房子和花園重新連接在一起。」

Renée explains: “The exterior had all the good elements of a Mid-Century meets Art Deco house, [but] the interior spaces were a bit of a mess and were almost completely redone [as] the interiors didn’t have flow or enough light.” The pair turned the garden- and park-facing kitchen into a breathtaking double-volume space, and added more glazing elsewhere too, including a large circular ‘porthole’ in the dining area, as well as clerestory windows and interior glass and metal doors. “(Creating) new, bigger windows and bigger volumes that flow into nature was a big driving force,” says Renée, as the aim was to reconnect the house with its beautiful garden – also much worked on during the renovation and now a lush masterpiece – and the greenery of the park landscape beyond it.

The overall result is that as well having as an abundance of natural light in its interiors, the house is an intriguing and visually pleasing exercise in geometry. It has become an illustration of the fact that “geometric symmetry” is not really about straight lines, but rather, is an expression of the most pleasing combinations of shapes based on rectangles and circles, as well as the use of these elements in concert with one another.

“My mom and I often collaborate,” says Renée. “We alternate between creator and editor for different projects, depending whose project it is. We have a similar understanding of colour and style: I’m a bit more minimalist and stripped down whereas Laureen is more energetic and passionate.”

經過一翻大改造後，屋內日光充足，散發著矩形和圓形構成的幾何美學。Renée表示，她和Laureen經常合作：「我們會根據不同項目而轉換身份，彼此對顏色和風格也有相近的看法。和母親相比，我比較喜歡簡約；她則傾向充滿活力和激情的設計風格。」

「在是次項目中，母親是主要創作者，我只是在旁擔當輔助⻆色，提供有關光線、體積和空間的意見。當她開始進行室內裝飾，我就設計地板和壁畫，以及一些傢具。她會根據自己的想法去佈置空間。」Renée補充說。

In this project, she adds, ‘My mom was the driving force. I acted mostly as a bouncing board and gave architectural ideas about light and volume and space. Once she started with the interiors, I designed some of the surfaces – like floors and a mural, and some furniture pieces. She furnished the space from her ideas and desires.”

Laureen, for her part, explains that ‘so much interior design is based on formulas about how spaces should work,’ adding that a formulaic approach “had to be transcended” in this house. “Every space had to be considered and designed – and then furnished – on its own terms,” she says. The results are beautiful: 20th-century design pieces including Le Corbusier chairs and a Bruno Mathsson chaise share the space with custom-designed flooring and wall panels created by Renée. The colours used throughout are vibrant, yet always tonally arranged to perfectly set off one another within each room. And the final layer is formed by Laureen’s collections of classic posters, local artworks and collectible objects.

Among the home’s most charming spaces are the mezzanine study area – described by Renée as “a family room filled with the primary colours my mom and I love” – and Laureen’s bathroom, which features a spectacular marble-clad central bath with a glorious view of the garden’s mature trees. Another charming spot is the outdoor living space, complete with fire pit and a combination of vintage and custom-designed garden furniture. This, Renée says, is the place where ‘we sit as a family... It feels really special.’

While Cape Town isn’t an architecturally pleasing city on the whole, it does have some hidden gems – many of which are domestic buildings. Following the renovation that has given it a new lease of life, this Bauhausbrought-bang-up-to-date home is now definitely one of them.

Laureen直言，很多室內設計項目都建基於如何有效使用空間，她不希望這幢

房子被「公式化」束縛。她說：「每個空間都必須按照自己的條件設計、佈置。」

例如一系列20世紀設計傢具包括Le Corbusier椅子和Bruno Mathsson躺椅，和Renée設計的定制地板和牆板互相襯托。

整個項目最迷人的空間，要數書房及Laureen的浴室。浴室設有雲石浴缸，外

望室外美景。戶外空間備有火窯以及老式訂製的花園傢具。「我們一家十分喜歡坐在

那裡消遺。」Renée說。

就建築⻆度而言，開普敦在總體上並不是一個令人賞心悅目的城市。但不能否認的是，當中許多的住宅建築都是隱藏寶藏。經過翻新後，會搖身一變成為耀眼建

築，這座Bauhaus就是最好一例。

“The exterior had all the good elements of a Mid-Century meets Art Deco house”