PLANTATION ROAD

Bordering the city edge and mountain, this Cape Town abode’s split personality is more than just a product of its environment

Ever heard that thing that people say about not taking your work home with you? Stephen Hitchcock and David Long of Stretch Architects are certainly not those people. In 2015, the friends and business partners were facing the same dilemma – both wanted to move their families into Cape Town’s City Bowl but both were impeded by prohibitive property prices. ‘We were determined to find a way to live in the city and the only way to do that was to share space,’ says Stephen. So when a little sliver of a plot in Vredehoek became available – situated at the foot of Table Mountain, and overlooking the city and Cape Town’s harbour beyond the scenic Philip Kgosana Drive – it was, as David says, ‘a no-brainer’.

While budget constraints prevailed, it was no student digs that the two architects, both family men, set out to construct. The plan was to build boundary-to-boundary, creating one house that would function as two homes: Stephen’s abode for himself, wife and one-year-old son, and David’s home with his wife and two children, aged three and one.

‘From the outside, it’s one facade, but internally it’s split down the middle, almost like two Amsterdam-style row houses – both very narrow and set over three levels, with a lot of stairs,’ says Stephen. It’s a multifunctional space shaped as much by practicality as it is by ingenuity. ‘The design was completely driven by the restrictions we had – building line restrictions, fire regulations, space, budget – and that’s what makes for interesting architecture,’ he explains. ‘On a very limited budget, you have to get creative to find ways to still employ good architecture within these constraints. It’s then that you figure out things you wouldn’t otherwise have done, because you’re forced to flip ideas over and rethink them in new ways.’