Built into a mountain.
A modernist ecological estate at the foot of Skoorsteenberg in Hout Bay — twenty-five minutes from central Cape Town, a world away from the city.
Welcome
A secluded haven, perched atop the world.
The house looks east into the Orange Kloof reserve and the hidden side of Table Mountain; west across the Hout Bay valley to the Atlantic. The slope is steep enough that the city feels far; the road down is short enough that it isn't. Twenty-five minutes to Cape Town. Three minutes to the start of Chapman's Peak.
The property in three frames
Two mountains meet
The deck looks out over the Orange Kloof reserve and the hidden side of Table Mountain. The square structure crowning the peak to the right is the Table Mountain cable-car station — visible to only two or three properties in Hout Bay.
Fynbos in every direction
Ten thousand square metres of the Cape Floral Kingdom — one of earth's six. King protea, pincushion leucospermums, the medicinal buchu. A trail leads from the top gate to the Skoorsteenberg peaks. Sugarbirds in the mornings.
Built of the place
Sand-coloured stone quarried on-site for the ground floor. Moon-phase-harvested local pine above. Iroko deck. Floor-to-ceiling glass. A natural boulder embedded between the floors, peeking out at the open-air entrance.
Three accommodations
One estate. Three ways to stay.
Main House
Roughly four thousand three hundred square feet across two floors, built into the mountain slope. Designed by South Africa's Wolf & Wolf Architects as a living ecosystem — comprehensive passive design, a self-regulating wetland pool that wraps the north-east corner, innovative interaction between timber, solar glass, concrete and stone.
Guest Cottage
The Guest Cottage sits a short walk from the Main House, on its own stone foundation above the olive trees. Cedar-clad walls, floor-to-ceiling glass, a slatted timber pergola over a wraparound deck. Inside: a kitchen with dark cabinetry and a woven-pattern tile backsplash; a linen-and-kilim living area; a single bedroom that opens onto the deck. Outside: the same mountain that the Main House looks at, and the same fynbos slope. Bookable year-round — including when the owners are in residence at the Main House.
Writers Cottage
Under construction. Literally. The Writers Cottage is being built into the slope above the Main House — a single quiet room for one or two, with a desk against the glass, a wall of books, a small fireplace, a bed, and the mountain through every window. Available from October 2026. These are the architect's renders; in October they become photos.
Marquee experience
Sauna & Cold Plunge
A wood-fired sauna and a cold plunge sit in a quiet corner of the property — Latvian in spirit, traditional in build, and part of the estate. Anyone renting the Main House has them, no extra charge and no schedule. The sauna fires on request; the cold plunge runs all the time....
The sauna ritual →