HIGH DESIGN
A trailblazer in Cape Town’s urban renewal movement, Robert Silke cares about making buildings that extend the rich mythology of the city, woven by artists and storytellers. The architect’s most recent creation, Tuynhuys, wedges into a narrow site on historical Keerom Street in the city centre – a former gracht (canal) where sailors who rowed their dinghies up from the harbour into an unexpected dead end were forced to turn around or keer om (turn around).
As a contemporary building that has only just come into being, Tuynhuys feels like a structure that dates from the past, yet belongs to the future. Traces of the Art Deco movement can be read in
