Comparison Between Rust and Vreugd and One and Only Cape Town

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Rust and Vreugd can be seen as a suburban house in the city centre of Cape Town. This is unusual as homes in the city centre today are found to be apartments, lofts, condos and penthouses. It is rare to find a suburban-style house in the city centre, built in the past 20 years. From this it can be said that a penthouse is the development of the suburban house in the city centre. Many factors lead to this development and change of “city houses”. It is essential to first look at the characteristics of a suburban house and a penthouse to see what the differences are between these two homes, including references to the examples. Rust and Vreugd is an old house in the City of Cape Town built in 1771.(fig 1.1) It is a great example of VOC architecture and is a monument and museum open to the public today. Done by architect Anton Anreith, it includes characteristics of the Cape Dutch style. It is symmetrical, has a stoep, voorkamer and achterkamer but has some features only found later in Cape Town. It is evident that towards the end of the 18th century the flat roofed type of house was generally employed in the town, whilst the thatched and gabled roof was commonly used in the suburban and country houses. The town houses were mostly two storeys while those in the country were one storey. It was designed on a grand scale and is larger than the average townhouse of its time. Its most distinctive features includes a highly ornamented classical façade, a stoep with an overhanging balcony supported on four massive fluted teak columns with Corinthian capitals, and large cellars located beneath its teak floors. The front doors are surmounted by a decorative fanlight. (Fig 1.2) Rust and Vreugd Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2 Figure 1.3
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