House Kommetjie

The client is a French artist who had worked on four continents and wanted one fixed point by the sea; her husband asked only to be near the break. They chose Kommetjie, where the south-easter decides most things — so the house turns its back to it.

Rooms gather around a sheltered courtyard rather than facing the weather. A slatted timber pergola filters the midday light without closing the view to the mountain, and a steel-framed glass roof over the kitchen brings the sky in where a window could not. The studio takes the steadiest south light in the house; the decks step down the erf toward the water, each level one degree less sheltered than the last.