Derek White jokes that he was in his second year of university when he “started vetting architects” for his future home.“ That’s when I met Liani—I don’t know if we would have been friends if we didn’t share a sense of aesthetics,” Derek says wryly as Liani Douglas listens in.

But friends they became, and some 14 years later, when Derek came across a dilapidated, 80-year-old cottage in a spectacular location, he immediately called Douglas & Company, the architectural firm Douglas had founded with her husband, Jan.

At the foot of Table Mountain, Cape Town’s Newlands Village is a picturesque, sloping suburb lush with greenery. Residents live along oak-lined streets and have access to the region’s natural splendor: Newlands Forest, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, and hiking trails up the mountain are all just beyond the front door. For Derek, a legal consultant, his partner, Jean Banks, a lawyer, and their two Spinone Italiano dogs, Ben and Quinn, the single-story cottage that they found there presented an opportunity.

“From the slate floors to the stone countertops, to the wood, brick, steel, and glass—all of it felt like something I wanted to celebrate.”
—Derek White, resident

But aside from its prime location, the unloved, roughly 860-square-foot structure was in bad shape. “It was actually very depressing, and part of the appeal was the challenge of turning it into something else,” says Derek. A less appealing challenge in Newlands was obtaining approval to build or renovate on a heritage site saddled with strict codes, a process that took Douglas and the couple about a year in and of itself.

Another challenge—this one a little more fun—was determining how to make the most of the lot. “Initially, it wasn’t clear to us what the solution was,” says Derek. “But we knew we wanted outdoor space around the house, especially for the dogs.”

Douglas came back with plans for a holistic renovation: She would demolish the existing outbuildings to make room for adjacent gardens and gut the interiors of the cottage, preserving only the original perimeter walls and foundations as a starting point for the new residence. By adding a steel frame, she could expand upward to create a second level and a loft. “It was so obvious that this was the only way this should work,” Derek remembers. “It felt 100 percent right.”

Shop the Look

Atop the bones of the old bungalow is now a boxy, two-story residence that spans 1,453 square feet. Through the front gate, made of steel finished with red-oxide paint, and a twinning front door is a soaring, double-height living and dining area.

Under a metal hip roof and between the new floor and the ceilings of the second floor and loft—all made of South African pine—the steel frame acts like a skeleton to create the home’s voluminous public spaces and compartmentalize its private ones. Left visible throughout the house, the frame has the same color as the front gate. In fact, a kind of coding system guided Douglas’s choice of finishes: structural elements in red, timber joinery that complements the green slate floors, and utilitarian elements like lighting and work surfaces in black.

From the center of the ground floor, which also includes a guest bedroom and bathroom, rises a wooden stair that winds around a single cross-laminated timber column at the center. It’s wrapped in a screen, also made of pine, that provides continuous light and air as one ascends from the public spaces to the couple’s bedroom and bath on the second floor, and finally to the study on the loft level, which has a view of Table Mountain.

The entire space has a sense of light-filled expansiveness thanks to another puzzle that Douglas had to solve. Although the residence’s timber-framed bay windows catch a lot of the sun as it moves across the sky, Douglas had to reckon with the home’s west-facing wall, which is shared by a neighbor. So, she carved out space for a light well that rises through all three levels.

Sitting in the living room drinking honeybush and rooibos tea, Derek explains the aesthetic bond formed with Douglas early on: It’s all about elegantly understated finishes, a tight palette, and natural and locally sourced materials.

With a bounty of windows on the street-facing facade, the home takes on a magnificent glow at night. In the morning light, it tucks humbly into the street, overshadowed by Table Mountain in the distance. Reflecting on the result, the two friends agree: It’s the home they always knew they would build.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Douglas & Company / @do_andco

Construction: M Puccini Builders

Engineering: Gadomski Consulting Engineers

Interior Design: Douglas & Company

Cabinetry Installation: Holz Cabinetry

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Longtime Friends Reunite to Transform an 80-Year-Old Cottage in Cape Town