Designed For Living

The sensitive restoration of a heritage Modernist home in Cape Town transformed the abode into a contemporary family space

- Hunter Reed

If you’re lucky enough to call a home designed by US architects Adèle Naudé Santos and Tony de Souza Santos your own, you have in no uncertain terms hit a winning six on the real-estate PowerBall. The former husband and-wife team were the original It architects of the 1960s and 1970s, responsible for some of Cape Town’s – and South Africa’s – most important Modernist works.

One such build is this delightfully airy abode in Kenilworth, Cape Town, whose architecture is so admired that today the house falls under the protection of the non-profit organisation Docomomo: the International Committee for the Documentation and Conservation of buildings of the Modern Movement. Owned by Bettina Woodward of Open City Architects and her husband Jeremy, a scientist, the house is both a lovingly restored example of Modernist architecture as well as an inviting family home for the couple and their children, Tom (6) and Helen (3).

In response to the shape of the site and a row of maple trees growing through it, the home splits into two distinct wings: a public one containing the kitchen, dining room, playroom and lounge; and a private one for the bedrooms and bathrooms. ‘The architects decided from the outset that none of the established trees were to be removed, so the house weaves between them,’ says Jeremy. Adds Bettina, ‘Adèle and Tony essentially “unwrapped” the building to accommodate these trees, which effectively created the courtyard between the two wings that fills all the rooms with light.’ Another consequence of this splitting of spaces is the sculptural staircase, which passes over the entrance to the glazed courtyard.