iTech.House 01 — Beyond Conventional Luxury
iTech.House, Hout Bay: the curved timber roofline above the pool terrace

Hout Bay, Cape Town

Beyond Conventional Luxury

A different standard of living. Africa's first certified Active House, where advanced engineering makes a new kind of architecture possible.

An Exceptional Setting

The site was chosen before the house was designed. Sun, slope, vegetation and rock set the architecture — and the decision that shaped everything else was how little of the plot to build on. Standing some 7 m above its own street corner, with mature bluegums holding the upper boundary, the house keeps its privacy and its outlook without needing walls to do it.

Aerial view of iTech.House set into the planted slope at Hout Bay

The site, as surveyed

Erf 12678 · contours at 0,5 m

Blue Valley Avenue Bluegums retained 10 m N

Under 20%

of the plot is built on. The footprint was deliberately limited, leaving the boulders, the vegetation and the natural shape of the land where they are.

A conventional luxury development maximises the buildable area, because floor area is what gets valued. Choosing not to is a design position, not a constraint — and on this site the slope then generates the curved geometry, rather than being levelled away.

1 900 m² the surveyed extent of Erf 12678, Hout Bay
10 m of fall across the site, from the street corner up to the eastern boundary
Five sides an irregular erf rather than a rectangle; the longest boundary runs 73 m

Topographic survey of Erf 12678 by Geomatics_fjc Land Surveying Consultants, May 2023. The plot area, the fall and the boundary lengths are measured from that drawing, not quoted from a title deed or SG diagram. The building footprint is an indicative outline pending the architect’s site plan. Footprint share: InnovHousing.

The planted approach path to iTech.House
iTech.House sitting among the site's existing boulders and vegetation

Architecture Without Compromise

Every structural component is individually engineered and digitally manufactured. That is what buys an unbroken 21-metre span, approximately 160 m² of glazing, and curves that follow the ground.

Where the structure lands — plan of the living level

Glazing to the landscape Intermediate supports — several bays instead of one room 21 m — no intermediate column

21 m

of uninterrupted space. The load crosses the whole room in one structural move, so nothing lands in the middle of the living area.

That structure sits where the engineering requires rather than where you would want it, and it decides how the room can be used.

The conventional side is illustrative, not a specific engineering case. Plan is schematic.

Did you know

Advanced engineering can eliminate the need for supporting columns across an entire living space.

Conventional residential construction breaks a large room with structure. Here the load is carried by engineered timber across a single 21-metre span, so the room is uninterrupted and the glazing runs the full height.

Dining area at iTech.House beneath the exposed timber ceiling, glazed to the landscape
160 m² of glazing connecting the interiors with the landscape — InnovHousing’s approximate figure
Every part individually engineered and digitally manufactured before it reaches the site
Millimetres every panel CNC-cut from the digital model, so what is drawn is what is built
The open-plan living and kitchen space, uninterrupted by structure
Living space opening to the landscape through full-height glazing

Prototype — sections 01 to 03. The sequence continues:

  1. 04 Light, Space & Nature
  2. 05 Engineered Comfort
  3. 06 Energy by Design
  4. 07 A Lower Carbon Footprint
  5. 08 Precision by Design
  6. 09 The Difference Is Measurable
  7. 10 InnovHousing