According to the Financial Times, Cape Town's population (metropolitan area) grew by 27.6% from 2011 to 2022, landing at approximately 4.77 million. Last year it was estimated at 4.97 million. At the same time, residential property prices increased by about 160% during the period from 2010 to 2024, outpacing all other cities in South Africa. Last year the average price of a home increased by 8.5% in Cape Town versus the national average of 4.5%. And as is the case in most desirable cities around the world, this has some people worried.
To celebrate the launch of their Guide to Cosy Homes (2015), Monocle Films produced a number of home tours.
Die Es, pictured above, is the home of South African architects Gawie and Gwen Fagan. They started building their home in 1964, just as they were starting their practice.
Because of this, they had little money and had to do a lot of the work themselves. They sold their car to buy a concrete mixer.
Although they didn’t set out to explicitly design a “Cape” house, it ended up that way, with heavy thermal masses, white walls, and so on.
The architecture also relates very closely to the surrounding landscape – as it should – in the way in which it frames views of the water and mountains.
The mediterranean climate also really comes through in the materiality of the home and the connections to outside.
If you’d like to watch the 5 minute tour of Die Es, click here.
