Morgan Bay · Eastern Cape
Whitfield Consult
Beachfront House
A 1970s holiday home rebuilt to face the sea it had always been turned away from.
A house closed off from its own view.
The client bought a single-storey 1970s holiday home on a steep coastal erf, sitting square in front of the sea and the cliffs. The house was structurally unsound and shut off from the very view it faced: small windows, a low ceiling line, and a layout patched together over the years. When recent rains flooded the timber rondawel, the renovation stopped being optional.
The ask was a contemporary Mediterranean revival built around indoor-outdoor living. Natural stone and timber, barn-style sliding doors, built-in seating, white plaster warmed with natural materials, and rooms planned for family and for hosting, all without giving up privacy from the road that runs past the site.
Worked out in timber before a wall was touched.
The plan was tested first as a physical massing model and a set of hand drawings: the storeys stacking against the slope, the stair running up through the middle to the master bedroom. Reading the erf closely came before anything went to the builder, where the light fell, where the wind came from, and how far the house could open to the south before the road took its privacy back.
One honest move. Take the old house down, and build off the bones worth keeping.
Timber dwelling demolished · foundation and upper walls retained · height held to the slope, not above it
Up off the retained foundation, then under plaster.
The new structure rose in face brick on the old base, then disappeared under white plaster. Flat roofs, typical of the Mediterranean coast, let the floors inside step down the fall of the site.
Lift the living to the view, and let the plan step down to meet it.
The garage and water storage sit on the ground floor, taking the stormwater and freeing the rooms above to rise toward the sea. A single staircase runs the length of the house as a deliberate line of movement, climbing to the master bedroom at the top. Flat roofs let the floors tier, with steps marking each change of level and use.
A garden wall doubles as balustrade and privacy screen against the road, so the space behind it opens into a full inside-outside room, and raised gardens do the same for the street-facing social spaces. Covered verandas to the south-east and north-west work with the prevailing winds, and a double-sided fireplace warms the living area and the kitchen at once.
Seating built straight into the walls, doubling as storage. Timber and reclaimed timber run throughout, with the original stone wall kept as a backdrop.
Occupied year-round, and strongest in summer.
Full sea views are held from the living spaces, with the master bedroom taking the best of them and its own deck to the south-east. Stone and thermal mass keep the interiors cool through summer with nothing mechanical running. The same limited northern and western sun that makes that possible leans the house on its fireplace in winter, so the result carries a clear seasonal character rather than a fully solved year-round climate. The brief for indoor-outdoor, hospitality-focused living was delivered plainly and in full.
Every property has a signature.