Bl ue print
Archi- Camo T
his residential building along Lower Main Road in Observatory, Cape Town, aims to revitalise the residential property market in the area with a contemporary forward-looking offering for young professionals, while remaining respectful of the history and cultural diversity of the area and its community. To be financially viable, the development required nearly six levels above ground, built to zerometer building lines on four boundaries. The surrounding context, however, consisted of predominantly one- and two-storey structures at the time of planning, although the area has been undergoing drastic changes for at least the past three years. Two Five Five Architects, who designed the building for Agora, a new developer in the industry, found themselves considering how they could design a building that would be sensitive to the scale of the area and relate to the context in a manner that was familiar and fresh at the same time. Given the feasibility requirements, a certain height and architectural presence was unavoidable, but the architects devised a type of architectural camouflage to integrate it into its environment and lessen its impact. They captured drone
Phot og r aphy: K arl R og e r s / Vig ne t te
This page and right: Drone footage of the building's broader context - views of Table Mountain and the harbour - was pixelated to extract a base colour scheme, which was in turn applied to the façade in a block-like pattern as a form of architectural camouflage.
footage of the key contextual markers: Table Mountain on one side and Cape Town harbour and the wide-open sky on the other. They pixelated the images and, from these abstractions, extracted a base colour scheme. These colours were in turn applied in block-like patterns to the façade of the building – the greens of the mountain on one side and the blues of the ocean on the other. Following in the tradition of brightly coloured row
houses characteristic of areas like Observatory and Bo-Kaap, the distinctive colours at once helped the building to blend in and to stand out, without appearing alien or insensitive. Setbacks were created (some over kitchens and others recessed into the façade) to provide natural light and ventilation on the zero-meter building lines, which added to the texture and variety on the façade while enhancing
22 Leading Architecture + Design DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022
the living quality within the apartments. Two Five Five Architects went further in their treatment of the façade and sought out examples of as many of the distinctive plaster techniques they could find within a onekilometre radius of the development. They found a tremendously diverse range of techniques, from fishscales and scallops through to banana plaster. Continued next page//
