Spindle is Cape Town's mid-rise answer to the high-rise needles of Manhattan. At sixty metres tall and comprising sixteen storeys, architect Robert Silke explains that, whilst Spindle may be a skyscraper by Cape Town standards, it will only ever have thirteen owners.
Spindle is located as the jewel in the corner of a typical city block where Spin Street intersects with Plein Street. Whereas a conventional full-block development would have a deep hinterland of ordinary units, with a few very special properties on the corners and at the top, Spindle is all corners and top.
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Spindle comprises full-floor mansions on its upper floors, with full-floor A-grade professional chambers on the lower floors, with two jaw-dropping duplex penthouses above. All units comprise at least one full floor of the tower, whilst the two penthouses comprise two floors -- and thus it comes to be that the sixteen storey tower will only have thirteen sectional title units.
At Spindle, each floor is your own and every unit is a corner unit. There are no small units, only grand ones. And as large as the mansions and chambers may be, one is never far from a window or a panoramic mountain and cityscape view.
Each unit will occupy its own full floor, with its own key-card lift access and its own private lift lobby. The typical floors alternate in size from 143m² to 150m² and the two duplex penthouses are 257m² and 280m² in respective extent.
The lift is a high-speed, extra-length, commercial-grade elevator from Kone of Finland, and will be on a full 4½-hour battery backup, even if Spindle gets load-shed. We say "if", because Spindle's site is wired to the same grid as National Parliament and has thus (to date of writing) never before been load-shed. And, with only thirteen units in the building, you may never even see a neighbour in the elevator.
Spindle itself has no "Common Areas," but there is a rather grand, private entrance foyer and valet car drop-off, comprising the entire ground floor, and slathered in Sardo granite from floor to ceiling - and only slightly softened with salmon velvet drapes and indirect, concealed warm-white lighting.
Behind a solid black polished Corian reception desk is the dedicated 24-hour doorman and valet, whose job it is to serve only the thirteen owners - in the style and vein of a 5th Avenue apartment building.
Between reception and the private valet parking bay, is the box-room, where deliveries can be safely stowed while you're out.
Most new apartment blocks to tend to look a lot like high-rise parking garages, because that's essentially what they are, but Spindle doesn't have that problem. Liberated from the banalities of parking, Spindle is an elegant, curvaceous and slender tower that devotes all of its resources to the qualitative values of sculpture, light and space.
Estate Agents often speak of "Position, Position, Position," others speak of "Parking, Parking, Parking," whilst others may speak of "Views, Views, Views," (and Spindle has all of these covered) but few speak of the enduring asset value associated with aesthetics, architecture and design. In short, there's a Pareto distribution in property, where the most beautiful streets attract the most beautiful buildings, and these areas come to attract the best kinds of people. It's the story of the great world cities, and Cape Town's historic core is emerging as one such place.
Whilst Spindle is sited at the nexus of Cape Town's densely-packed historic core, the corner site (miraculously) stands almost isolated in a dramatic clearing in the centre of the city. Spin Street (to the south) is exceptionally wide and lined with handsome architecture and ancient trees, and Plein Street (to the east) opens up into an attractive red-brick square in front of the Truworths tower and the Woolworths directors' building.
Thus the eastward views towards Devil's Peak are entirely unobstructed on all floors, and offer breathtaking mountain panoramas. In addition, the lower floors have their own Victorian cityscape views across Spin Street, over the trees, into some 19th century stone edifices that look straight out of Amsterdam.
As one gets to the middle floors of the tower, the southern views towards Spin Street open up into a dramatic Table Mountain panorama, with cityscape below.
Whilst the full-floor mansions and chambers are all corner units with 180° views, the two duplex penthouses are defined by having risen right above the immediate neighbours, and therefore extending "the usual panorama" into a full 360° tour de force, now encompassing across harbour and sea.
Glazing always goes all the way up to the ceilings, so that mountain-tops can be unobstructed. The best views in Cape Town are always south, which means that the large expanses of glazing may not even require window coverings, as the lighting is never direct. Just as artist's seek out south-light in their studios (for indirect ambient lighting), art collectors and museums similarly want fenestration that will not damage valuable pieces with direct sun exposure.
Spindle's site is wired to the same grid as National Parliament and has thus (to date of writing) never before been load-shed. But, because past performance is no guide to future performance, Spindle is to be rigged with an impressive north-facing solar array, wired to a capacious battery and inverter system, and intended to provide up to 4½ hours of backup for the lift, all lighting (whether common or private), as well as internet and television.
Similarly Spindle will have no less that 30,000 litres of water storage capacity in its basement, which can be utilised by the building in the event of future shortages. Additionally, a private borehole will be sunk below the building, to make it ready for future filtration and use, should that day ever arrive.
Each full-floor mansion or full-floor office chambers comes with two private, secure parking bays as standard, whilst the duplex penthouses each come with three private, secure parking bays, two of which are in tandem. Additional parking bays are available, for sale, to office chambers buyers who need them.
As we said, Spindle has no "Common Areas," but the Adderley Parking Garage sports a visually-arresting roof-top pool (as well as a gym) to which all parking bay owners have free access. Spindle itself has no "Common Areas".
Spindle may be conceived as a modern-day fairytale, where dreamers can each have their own tower, but is in no way a nostalgic fantasy.
For Spindle is crisp and clean and cutting edge in its design, and owes more to Richard Meier's Late Modern architecture of Californian prosperity, than it does to the dark antiquities of old Europe.
Spindle makes a traditional nod to the myriad human archetypal fantasies behind us, whilst facing the future bravely with its spine straight and shoulders back, knowing that Cape Town's best days still lie ahead of us.
