A complete gutting of a ninth-floor penthouse, rebuilt inside to hand the whole apartment over to its views. Every single window looks at the sea, so the spaces were opened right up, until you're surrounded by sea and light.

The biggest challenge was that the building itself was old and tired, and neither the structure nor the position of a single window could change... So the structure became part of the design.

Where a concrete column couldn't move, the concrete was ground back and shown off. A flimsy ladder to the roof became a concrete staircase with storage, display space and a wine cellar built underneath.

A fireplace went in, hard to do in an existing building and harder to get past the body corporate, and it turned a summer apartment into a winter one too: see the sea, close it all up, warm the room.

On the roof, a private deck with water, gas and a built-in braai, and an awning system on remote controls and wind sensors that closes the deck into an extra room to sleep in on summer nights.