hen it comes to spotting potential,
architect Jürgen Kieslich and in-
terior designer Etienne Hanekom
are blessed with 20/20 vision. Take
their latest collaborative project.
While Jürgen was looking for an
apartment in Cape Town for his retired parents, Hans
and Wendy, his estate agent on a whim showed him
a property she hadn’t been able to sell: a stark con-
crete utility and service space inside Green Point’s
hotel-turned-residential-complex the Cape Royale.
The double-volume 550 m^2 space had no floors or
ceilings, electricity or plumbing. A concrete slab and
pillars divided one side of the cavernous space into
two floors, but that was it. “It looked a bit like a park-
ing garage really,” jokes Etienne, who was roped in by
Jürgen to help him transform
the empty shell into a place
his parents would be happy to
call home.
In terms of a brief, Jürgen
says Hans and Wendy were
pretty undemanding clients:
“They didn’t want to let go
of their books, they wanted
a room where they could cosy
up in the evening and read
and watch series, and my dad
wanted a space for his stamp
collection.” In terms of decor, the couple wanted him
to incorpo rate their antique furniture and not go too
over the top with bold colours. The rest they left up
to him.
In a renovation that took more than a year to com-
plete, Jürgen and Etienne proceeded to colour in the
harsh outlines of the interior, incorporating curves
to soften its rigid landscape and introducing a limit-
ed palette of blue and green to echo the apartment’s
view of Green Point Urban Park and the sea beyond.
Ultimately, they managed to create an apartment that
comprises both airy spaces for entertaining as well as
nooks for solitary cocooning.
To create a sense of cohesion, Etienne played out
variations of the same few themes throughout the
apartment. There’s the repetition of natural elements,
including oak, leather and warm metals like copper,
bronze and gold; a range of whimsical wallpapers withnautical and forest themes; and the klompie format
expressed in the original brick, as well as glazed tiles.
The undisputed heart of the apartment is the
atrium, clad from floor to ceiling in shelves that
Etienne had custom-made to accommodate all the
books Jürgen’s parents had amassed over the years.
Offering the perfect vantage point from which to dis-
cern the collection is an iron-and-oak staircase that
lazily winds its way past a mirrored wall. Suspended
above it all is one of Moooi’s spider-like Dear Ingo
chandeliers – the quirky touch that has become a sig-
nature of Etienne’s style. “I like to incorporate a bit of
humour here and there,” says Etienne. “Basically, it’s
a serious house that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”
The stamp room is decidedly masculine, with the
bookshelves that house Hans’s frankly astounding
collection of leather-bound
stamp albums painted a bluish
slate grey. The philately theme
is continued with stamp-
emblazoned wall paper that’s
repeated in the bathroom.
“In addition to housing the
stamps, it has become a cosy
space where my parents nest
and watch TV,” says Jürgen.
Casting a warm glow in the eve-
nings is a pair of Tom Dixon’s
other worldly Melt pendants
in gold. “I always try to create a balance between old
and new. This apartment could have easily felt a bit
like a museum with all the antiques, books, stamps and
leather, but it doesn’t,” says Etienne.
According to Jürgen, the main bedroom upstairs
is the best spot in the apartment from which to enjoy
the panoramic view spanning from Sea Point to the
harbour. It’s definitely a luxurious perch, with two
separate dressing rooms with en-suite bathrooms,
nautically themed wallpaper, a plushly upholstered
headboard, and an inky blue ceiling flecked with gold.
At night, a flick of a light switch transforms it into
a starry night sky courtesy of pinhead-sized drop
lights. It’s a small, thoughtful addition meant to delight
Wendy and Hans. One of many in this serious house
that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
etiennehanekom.com
jkarchitects.co.zaW
“THIS APARTMENT
COULD HAVE
EASILY FELT A BIT
LIKE A MUSEUM
WITH ALL THE
ANTIQUES, BUT
IT DOESN’T.”OPENING SPREAD Dramatic slate-grey oak bookshelves extend across both floors. They’re the handiwork of Umar Abdullatief, who
works for Ameen Tofie of SA Kitchens. SteelForm in Johannesburg made the steel frame of the staircase, and it was filled with concrete
on site. The wallpaper in the entrance hall is by Cole and Son from St Leger & Viney, and the floors are by Oggie Hardwood Flooring.
The Dear Ingo chandelier by Moooi is from Maxim Lighting. OPPOSITE A blue-grey palette warmed up with woods and splashes of copper
and gold makes the stamp room a luxurious bolthole. The wallpaper is from St Leger & Viney and the Tom Dixon Melt pendant lamps are
from Créma. The Flow Slim chair, a Jean-Marie Massaud design, is from Limeline.
visi.co.za JUNE/JULY 2019 92
�ISI GREEN POINT APARTMENT