Zen And Now

A revamped Johannesburg home combines classic and contemporary elements for a pared-down yet elegant aesthetic

- Deborah Rudman

One of the qualities that makes Johannesburg so appealingly livable is its climate. Blessed with sunshine for most of the year, even in the cold winter months, it is an ideal city for people who value the space and freedom of outdoor living.

The quest for this property’s owners, who had previously enjoyed living in an apartment in Istanbul, Turkey, was to find similar accommodation when they moved back to South Africa. But once introduced to this house, behind its typically forbidding Johannesburg walls, they changed their minds, appreciating both its accessible northern suburbs location and its promising stretch of grounds. With two children, they decided that they needed more room than a typical apartment could offer, and soon their idea of flat-dwelling was supplanted by the vision of a freestanding home.