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“Cape Town is more than our home; it’s the lens through which SAOTA was formed and continues to evolve. Set between mountain, ocean and sky, the city’s raw beauty and cultural layers demand architecture that responds with precision, confidence and a strong sense of place.
From coastal cliffs to dense urban sites, Cape Town challenges us to design spaces that balance form and function, restraint and richness, always engaging with their environment. This constant dialogue between built form and landscape defines our approach — responsive, contextual and deeply spatial.”
Introverted Aperitivo on buzzy Kloof Street offers a stylish escape where bold design takes centre stage. Drawing inspiration from 1970s English designer David Hicks, the owners have splashed the interior with scarlet and crimson walls offset by burnt-orange banquettes, creating an evocative, quirky environment. This strong, saturated palette was further refined with the expertise of Milanese colour consultant Tiziana Giardini, resulting in an immersive yet balanced experience.
Gorgeous George blends two historic buildings, an Art Deco and a New Edwardian structure, into a seamless architectural whole that preserves original detailing while introducing contemporary materials and forms. Its rooftop spaces offer panoramic views of Cape Town’s cityscape and Table Mountain, anchoring the hotel in its urban context and creating a strong indoor-outdoor dialogue. Inside, the mood is curated through a mix of raw concrete, soft textures, and layered South African art and design, creating a rich, atmospheric experience that feels both grounded and cosmopolitan.
Dorp Hotel offers a uniquely atmospheric experience, combining Cape Georgian-inspired architecture with an eclectic, village-like layout where each room feels distinct and personal. Perched high on Signal Hill, it boasts extraordinary panoramic views of Table Mountain, the harbour, and Bo-Kaap below, grounding the hotel in a dramatic and culturally rich context. Inside, layered textures, antique furnishings, and theatrical volumes create a whimsical, nostalgic mood that blurs the line between home, salon, and retreat.
The Winchester Hotel is an enduring landmark on Sea Point promenade. A Cape Dutch-styled apartment built in 1922 and converted into a hotel in 1958, the hotel orientates its gabled façade towards the ocean, radiating a confidence and unique appeal that set it apart in Sea Point’s dense urban context. Inside, a recent full renovation by Source IBA has successfully instilled a timeless and comfortable modern update to the hotel that has thankfully preserved the mature bougainvilleas that climb its beautiful central courtyard.
Located high above the city in a penthouse-level space, FYN is a sophisticated blend of Afro-Japanese minimalism. The space features vertical timber slatting, subdued tones, and carefully curated textures that echo both kaiseki precision and local craft. The space feels both intimate and expansive, with the skyline forming part of the architecture.
Hemelhuijs is as much a design concept as it is a restaurant. The interior is ever-evolving, with rich seasonal colour palettes, curated ceramics, sculptural lighting, and antique-modern styling that shifts through the year. It’s an intimate, dramatically lit space where even the menus and tableware feel bespoke. Dining here is like stepping into a theatrical set or still life painting that’s been brought to life.
Intimate and elemental, Belly of the Beast is a 24-seater restaurant with no menu and no frills, just a hyper-curated food journey. The space echoes that ethos: earthy materials, open fire cooking, natural tones, and a tactile, handcrafted feel. With an open kitchen that dominates the room, the restaurant invites guests into a warm, slow, honest atmosphere that is as much about process as it is about presentation.
A striking glass pavilion perched on the slopes of the Constantia Valley, this restaurant is a masterclass in contemporary spatial clarity. Clean lines, raw timber finishes, and restrained material choices allow the surrounding vineyards and mountains to become part of the design. The open kitchen and sculptural furniture amplify the sense of transparency and flow, creating an atmosphere that’s both elevated and elemental.
Housed in a previously understated harbour‑edge building beside the Bascule Bridge, COY reveals itself via a dramatic, dark-hued interior. Blackened wood panelling, burnt-amber accents, and sculptural forms, bar counters shaped like African bowls, and arched table bases referencing traditional headrests create an intimate and tactile dining world.
Perched above Gorgeous George, a design-led hotel in the heart of Cape Town’s city centre, this rooftop offers sweeping views across the skyline. Conceived by Tristan du Plessis of StudioA, the space retains raw concrete beams and exposed steelwork that echo the hotel’s restored Edwardian and Art Deco heritage, while being warmed by a palette of deep blues, greens, and terracotta tones. Every detail has been sourced locally, from David Krynauw and Gregor Jenkin chairs to David Brits murals, Henri Rousseau–inspired jungle artworks, and Lucie de Moyencourt’s Delft-inspired tile tabletops, creating a layered, distinctly South African design experience.
Just 25 minutes from the city centre, this farm offers a serene escape designed by Metropolis Design. The main house, meditation pavilion, and guest cottage are arranged along an elongated platform tucked into a mountain crease, preserving the natural terrain while maximising sweeping views over False Bay and the Helderberg mountains. The architecture takes the form of sculptural volumes that appear to hover lightly above the landscape, blending sensitivity to place with striking contemporary design.
Rosetta approaches coffee education through design, with its branding subtly embedding learning cues into the interiors. Symbolic shapes and colour palettes reference the origins of its beans, spanning Africa, Asia, and Latin America, reinforcing its identity as a knowledge-driven roastery. Recognised internationally, Rosetta has been named one of the world’s best independent coffee shops by the Financial Times, while its Bree Street roastery has repeatedly earned the title of “Best Roastery in South Africa.”
Afternoon Tea at The Mount Nelson is a historic ritual set within one of Cape Town’s most iconic retreats, offering a taste of the city’s British colonial heritage. The hotel’s elegant, symmetrical façade, colonnaded terraces, grand balconies, and intricate Victorian-era detailing epitomise the style, while its iconic pink exterior, introduced in 1918 to celebrate the end of World War I, earned it the affectionate nickname “The Pink Lady”. Nestled at the foot of Table Mountain within expansive landscaped gardens, the architecture creates a seamless dialogue between the natural and built environments, framing Cape Town’s distinctive landscape.
This contemporary furniture and object design space carries the character of a gallery, defined by refined spatial edits that highlight open volumes, textured materials, and a sculptural rhythm. Quiet walls and floors serve as understated backdrops, allowing expressive pieces to take centre stage. The atmosphere is serene, sensory, and introspective; designed to invite slowness and an appreciation of material presence. Rooted in Cape Town yet globally attuned, it offers a precise but soulful articulation of the city’s creative sophistication.
This couture fashion studio and atelier inhabits a discreet modernist residence reimagined as a high-fashion workspace. Its interiors feel both cinematic and architectural, defined by steel, glass, a monochrome palette, concrete planes, and carefully curated art. The atmosphere is intimate, composed, and high-design, with a rhythmic interplay between space, light, and garments. Rooted in Cape Town, it stands as a powerful expression of creative self-determination, positioning contemporary African couture on a global stage.
This fashion, lifestyle, and homeware boutique is housed within a layered restoration of an Edwardian building, where heritage details such as arches and high ceilings are juxtaposed with luxurious materials and bold visual statements. The result is an atmosphere that feels refined, conscious, and deeply anchored in identity. As a flagship for pan-African excellence, the space uses spatial storytelling to articulate a new narrative of luxury, positioning Cape Town as a hub of contemporary design and cultural expression.
This gallery of art, antiques, ceramics, and Cape craft is set within a Cape Dutch structure of modest domestic proportions, where the interiors are infused with memory through soft light, chalky walls, and eclectic arrangements. The atmosphere is charming, nostalgic, and tactile, like stepping into the pages of an artist’s sketchbook. Deeply rooted in local sensibility, it blends humour, beauty, and the patina of time, offering a distinctly Cape Town expression of creativity and craft.
This independent bookstore and art gallery is a layered cultural space where contrasting atmospheres coexist. The bookshop, visually dense and archival, carries an almost monastic quality, inviting slow, tactile engagement with its collections. In contrast, the upstairs gallery is pared-back and minimal, offering a calm setting for art and reflection. Intellectual, contemplative, and deeply rooted in Cape Town’s cultural fabric, it stands as a landmark where architecture supports memory, dialogue, and creative discourse.
This contemporary art institution brings together gallery spaces and sculpture gardens in a setting that is both cultural and environmental. At its centre is a carefully conceived pavilion that responds to the surrounding landscape, framing views of Table Mountain while creating a fluid connection between indoor and outdoor art experiences. Serving as a major platform for contemporary South African and diaspora artists, it merges cultural narratives with environmental sensitivity, establishing itself as a vital destination in Cape Town’s creative scene.
A contemporary design gallery and curated studio showroom celebrating the intersection of craft and art. Showcasing limited-edition and one-off pieces rooted in African materials, traditions, and design vernacular, it elevates functional objects into collectible artworks through thoughtful aesthetic and material storytelling. As part of the Waterfront’s creative district, it embeds local design narratives into the global conversation, reinforcing Cape Town’s position as a hub of contemporary creativity.
Located in the Company’s Garden in Cape Town’s city centre, this natural history museum and planetarium is housed within a historic neo-classical building set in a colonial-era landscape. Inside, layered narratives unfold, from ancient fossils to indigenous cultural heritage, creating a rich tapestry of knowledge and discovery. As the city’s longest-standing museum, it remains central to Cape Town’s scientific and cultural identity, serving as a landmark of learning and collective memory.
A community and memory museum that is a profound example of adaptive reuse. At the heart of District Six, its architecture engages both physically and emotionally with the story of forced removals, using spatial storytelling to immerse visitors in lived histories. As a powerful heritage site, it reflects the city’s modern political and cultural journey, preserving memory while fostering dialogue about Cape Town’s past and future.
Just 45 minutes outside of Cape Town, this outdoor sculpture garden and contemporary art space unfolds across seven hectares of terrain shaped by the artist himself using earth-moving equipment. The landscape becomes a vast sculptural form, with more than 60 bronze works — from abstracted big cats to human-animal hybrids — positioned along four kilometres of meandering pathways. Blending indigenous fynbos, water features, and a Japanese wabi-sabi sensibility, the garden reflects Jungian notions of the “wilderness within”, creating a deeply spiritual dialogue between art and nature. As part of the Cape Winelands yet close to the city, it has become a revered artistic destination, enriching Cape Town’s broader visual culture.
Rhodes Memorial is an iconic piece of colonial architecture, set within the rock pine forests at the foot of Devil’s Peak. Being east facing and overlooking the outer suburbs of Cape Town, at sunrise the play of light between the over-scaled classical architecture with the ragged pines is quite striking, and the view breathtaking.
The glass-topped central atrium space of the Zeitz MOCAA is carved from the remnants of the old silo towers. It offers a memorable experience as the light plays off the unusual geometries of the space, changing character during the course of the day as the sun moves.
Overlooking both the city bowl to the East and the ocean on the West, going up Lion’s Head lets you see the city from a unique perspective and gives you an opportunity to take in some of the best sunsets in the world.
As part of the Food Station set up by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, this site has both classical structured gardens and more free-flowing experiential gardens. Set in the middle of Cape Town, it is framed by a combination of contemporary and historical architecture.
