HOUSE GABRIËL FAGAN - DIE ES
Camps Bay, Cape Town, Western Cape | 1965
Built for, and largely by Gawie Fagan’s own family of six, the construction of this house commenced with the basement workshop. This allowed for all joinery and metal work to be manufactured on site. A narrowly pinched site between neighbours, falling steeply from the road, commands a beautiful view over a small reserve to the coastline and Atlantic Ocean. Violent south-easterly winds rake the site from the street side, so the house turns its back on wind and street, with openings only for the approach and the high mountain views through carefully positioned windows and skylights. The entrance is a processional passage ending on a platform where one is directed up by the hollow sound of the timber underfoot and by the magnificent view of the sea beyond. An open stair leading from this platform to the bedrooms suggests screening, before one descends a few more steps to the spacious living room. This living-dining-patio-kitchen area can be screened in various combinations, from an intimate dining room to a small auditorium. There exists direct correlation between roof and the cell-like separateness of each room on plan. The roof lifts elegantly to frame alternate western sea and eastern mountain views. Constructed of straight boards on edge, glued and nailed, covered by a waterproof membrane, the roof contours over the bedrooms form a syncopated rhythm over the large scale of the communal space, and present a formality to the grand view. From the street side, however, the reverse contours are more intimate in scale, suitable to the smaller space of the rear garden. The generous hearth is tucked off the main living space and truly forms the heart of the house, symbolized by the large chimney. The whole design is regulated in three dimensions by Gawie Fagan’s particular application of Hambidge’s ‘Dynamic Symmetry’ from the overall down to the details.
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25 Sophia Gray Memorial Lectures and Exhibitions 1989-2013