White-framed cantilevered louvre roof with dove-grey blades in Camps Bay.

The brief

A Camps Bay home wanted to cover an exposed terrace without a forest of posts blocking the Atlantic view. The answer was a cantilevered louvre roof that reaches out over the space while keeping sightlines clear.

The build

A cantilevered aluminium louvre roof with a white frame and dove-grey blades. The cantilever carries the roof out over the terrace with minimal supports, and the whole structure is built to marine-grade specification for Camps Bay's front-line salt exposure: marine-grade aluminium, baked finishes and stainless fasteners.

The result

The white-and-dove-grey palette keeps it soft against the sea-and-sky backdrop, the cantilever keeps the view open, and the adjustable blades open for sun or seal the terrace against the south-easter.

Cantilevering over a Camps Bay terrace

A cantilever moves all the load back to one side, which is the whole point on a terrace like this: no posts on the view line, nothing between the terrace and the Atlantic. It also means the fixing side does all the work, so the frame and its anchors have to stand up to the south-easter that funnels down off the mountains above Camps Bay in summer.

Front-line Atlantic salt is the other half of the spec. This close to the water everything corrodes eventually unless it's built for it, so the roof uses marine-grade aluminium with baked finishes and stainless steel fasteners throughout. The dove-grey blades were a deliberate call as well: against sea and sky they read softer than charcoal would, and the white frame keeps the structure light on the eye.