Sense & Sensibility

TO MOULD a light, sophisticated abode out of a once-poky TAMBOERSKLOOF APARTMENT, interior designer JOHN JACOB ZWIEGELAAR balanced the scales of SCIENCE AND ART

- Jessica Ross

I just love the intensity of a small space,’ John Jacob Zwiegelaar insists with such enthusiasm, it is clear he’s most passionate when talking about his work. It’s perhaps because for the lauded Cape Town-based interior designer, nine-to-five comprises so much more than arranging beautiful objects in a home; it’s a meticulously constructed system of thought and analysis – a language – that’s so congruent, it provokes sentiment.

‘I’d call it an emotive science,’ he explains of the way that he approaches projects such as this tightly edited, downright sartorial apartment in Tamboerskloof, Cape Town. ‘What I do is not so much about decorating but about architectural detailing. I believe that harmony is created through carefully considered proportions.’