By the vines

This family home bordering a Cape Town wine estate takes full advantage of its spectacular setting with views of vineyards and mountains.

WORDS Graham Wood PHOTOGRAPHY Greg Cox STYLING Sven Alberding/Bureaux

When Matt and Victoria Bresler first went to see this site in Constantia Valley, bordering Cape Town’s historic Groot Constantia wine estate, it was because of a photograph Matt had seen in the newspaper’s property pages. It showed just three palm trees and a hint of vineyard in the background.

“The house wasn’t even in the photograph,” says Matt. When he got there, he could see why not. “I spent two or three minutes inside the house, and an hour on the roof looking at the view.”

Matt and his Kiwi wife Victoria were settling in Cape Town, South Africa with their three children Jonty, Hannah and Ollie after a decade of working and travelling, and were looking for a new home. They loved this location, but Matt realised that to do justice to those views, they would need to rebuild from scratch. The existing 1980s-era house was badly built. It was situated low into the plot with no views to speak of or sense of connection to its remarkable setting. Trees and large bushes all along the fence cut off the house from its potential views even more.

Architects and collaborators Jan-Heyn Vorster of Malan Vorster Architecture Interior Design and Tiaan Meyer of Meyer & Associates Architects designed the new house. Jan-Heyn calls the suburban vineyard setting magnificent. “It’s quite amazing how the vines change over the seasons. And then, obviously, the views of the mountain beyond are beautiful,” he says.

While it’s an acre in size, the site forms an asymmetrical triangle, so it shares an unusually long 130m border with the vineyard.

Before they even considered the design of the house, Jan-Heyn and Tiaan had to figure out how to capture the views Matt had begun to hope were possible after his rooftop excursion.

“We went to quite a bit of trouble during the planning phase to assure we maximised the home’s potential for views,” says Jan-Heyn. “Matt spent a lot of time on the site standing on carefully measured ladder rungs surveying views.” From the right position, it would even be possible to catch a glimpse of the 300-year-old Groot Constantia homestead.

The solution was to raise the level of the ground. “We brought in quite a lot of soil to bring the house up to a level that took full advantage of the views of the vineyards,” says Jan-Heyn.

At the same time, he was aware of how important it would be for the house to be integrated with its site. “You have to come up with clever landscaping solutions to bring the site back up to the house so that it doesn’t feel like an apartment in the air,” says Jan-Heyn. “So that it’s actually still a family home with seamless connection to the gardens and pool.”

Added to this was their awareness that people are allowed to walk in the vineyards along the property’s edge. “It was also important for the scale of the building to be quite sensitive,” says Jan-Heyn. They didn’t want to blight the setting with a selfishly large structure on the landscape.

The house was set as far back as they could. From the back of the house, it appears as a double-storey. From the vineyards, however, it’s a long-low-slung, ground- hugging form with two monopitch pop-up roofs.

An off-form concrete wall is the most definitive architectural feature here. “Lots of effort went into getting that wall beautifully cast using sand-blasted spruce to impart a wood-grain finish to the concrete,” says Jan-Heyn.

The materiality of the house was important throughout. Much of the facade at the back is clad in western red cedar. Inside, the concrete of the ceilings, rafters and pillars is softened with wood – solid oak flooring, cedar ceilings and interior oak joinery. Untreated cedar, which weathers to grey over time, is also used for the slatted entrance gates, window screens, front door and pergola.

The north-facing aspect of the house toward the vineyards is mostly glass. The two sawtooth-style roofs impart character, and the bedroom wing is angled inward to hug the garden. The bedrooms are in a stepped arrangement to allow for views in two directions and to catch the northern light as well as western sunsets. The bedroom wing is flat-roofed, making it less conspicuous, and it floats on a raised platform.

The interiors essentially form another layer of the architecture rather than functioning merely as containers

for furniture. “You can’t separate the interior design and the architecture from each other,” says Jan-Heyn. “From the beginning, we considered how the architecture and fixed furnishings would connect and fit together.”

For example, the unit between the kitchen and the living space is an extension of the architecture, concealing a TV and a fireplace, and the other side forms a coffee station with Matt’s collection of espresso cups.

“The building was basically quite neutral,” says Jan-Heyn. “The furniture, furnishings, decorations and art are where there is distinct character and colour.”

They include local designs, much of which is influenced by mid-century modernism. There are also some refurbished vintage items. Much of it is also made with natural wood, expressing the character of its materials.

“I guess we like clean lines and Scandi,” says Matt. He points out, however, that he is by no means a minimalist. Matt travelled extensively throughout his twenties and early thirties, filling his backpack with carefully selected artefacts unique to the countries he visited, such as masks and statues.

“It has been challenging but fun to try and balance my desire to display these hard-sought, memory- steeped items with our desire for a minimalist look,” says Matt. “I wanted to display the things that I love and feel passionate about.”

The master bedroom at the end of the bedroom wing has spectacular views of the garden, over the vineyards and to the Table Mountain range beyond. While the floor-to-ceiling glass sliding doors enable the views, privacy is created with sliding cedar screens.

He and Victoria also collect art and artefacts on their travels together. “For example, we now have a set of 14 little etchings in the passageway,” he says. “There was a great deal of satisfaction that we both got from pulling those out of boxes, agreeing on framing, hanging and enjoying them.”

Outside, the landscaping and planting help blend the house with its landscape and views. “I think what’s actually key to the success of the whole building is the integration with the landscape and the landscape design,” says Jan-Heyn. “It would have been a very different building if that wasn’t as well resolved.”

Landscape designer Mary Maurel worked closely with Matt and Victoria on the planting. Trees and other vegetation on the border blocking the view to the vineyard were removed. She devised a layered approach with naturalistic gardens around the house. This approach creates gentle transitions from architecture to landscape, and cleverly blurs the boundaries between the Breslers’ property and the vineyards, borrowing the extensive views. “It really sometimes feels as if the vineyard belongs to this property,” says Jan-Heyn.

A passionate plantsman, Matt has brought in over 200 trees – both indigenous and exotic – with a focus on prolifically-flowering trees. “I’ve brought in many saplings from trips abroad, and am currently rearing from seed some of the exciting species I can’t find in the country,” he says.

There’s a gate in the fence leading directly onto the vineyards, so the Breslers can walk their dogs through them whenever they like. When Matt goes jogging in the vineyards, he always slows to a walk for the long stretch bordering his property, taking a good look at the gardens and the house through the fence. “When I’m not focused on some weeds that need removing, I feel a great sense of pride when I look back,” he says. “I think we’ve done justice to the views and the setting.”