This Cape Town pied-à-terre, near to the V&A Waterfront’s Silo Precinct, was conceptualised as a blank canvas for the owner’s growing collection of South African and African art. The precinct is anchored by the Zeitz MOCAA, which is not only the most significant art museum in the world dedicated to artists from Africa and the diaspora but is also a local architectural landmark designed by the UK’s Thomas Heatherwick. Much of the district’s artistic and creative character derives from its presence. 

Other significant cultural and geographical markers include views overlooking the marina on one side of the apartment and natural landmarks such as Devil’s Peak on the other. Inevitably, these contextual prompts flavoured ARRCC and OKHA’s approach to the interiors. The client brief specified a strictly minimalistic approach. With the long rectangular shape of the apartment in mind, ARRCC opted to create a unified inner shell rather than a series of separate rooms. Integrated cabinetry makes it possible to conceal storage and present sleek, uncluttered surfaces throughout the apartment.

At the same time, this approach created opportunities for ARRCC to redefine the interior architecture with variations in scale and volume, subtly sculpting into the living spaces to define distinct areas within the larger open-plan space. Perhaps the most clearly legible of these is the champagne aluminium-clad kitchen, which appears as a unified insertion within the larger white interior. Similarly defined volumes, however, have been created for the dining and lounge areas. This approach has been reprised using different materials in different areas in the apartment: joinery in the living space and sandstone in the bathrooms, for example, while maintaining their monolithic appearance.

As much as a thematic or conceptual motif is possible within the pure functionalism of a minimalist brief, ARRCC devised a series of running lines integrated into the design of the joinery and lighting. These lines stop short of connecting, creating a sense of implied connectivity between spaces and elements of the interior architecture. The apartment might appear as an enclosed unit, complete in itself, but it remains open to its context, whether the sparkling lights of the marina and the yachts on the water, or the broader artistic identity of the precinct.