After standing watch over Muizenberg for over 90 years the town’s historic post office is undergoing a makeover as it becomes a “collaborative workspace”.
The restoration project will be conducted by Workshop17 as a demonstration of how heritage buildings can remain “powerful engines of community and economic life” while embracing the modern era.
Workshop17 designs fully-serviced office workspaces, event spaces meeting rooms and podcasting facilities in Cape Town, KwaZulu Natal, Johannesburg and Mauritius.
The landmark building, constructed in the 1930s, was designed then by Public Works Department architect WBT Newham, who was known as “Potty Newham” for his intense passion for integrating local ceramics into public buildings.
Architectural heritage preserved
Newham understood that infrastructure shapes community identity, insisting the post office functioned efficiently while speaking to all who used it. He created a sea-facing structure featuring Herbert Baker-style elements with hammer-dressed sandstone, arched windows and Cape-vernacular-meets-Art-Deco proportions.
“The approach has been conserve first, intervene lightly,” says architect Chris Charlton of Insitu Architecture.
Insitu Architecture is acting as Lead Architect and Principal Agent on the project, overseeing compliance, coordination and design integration.
“This building already had architectural dignity. Our role is to steward it into its next chapter,” he added.
Engagement began with the Muizenberg Historical Conservation Society, ensuring alignment on the retention and restoration of key heritage elements. “Following this engagement, formal approval and a permit were obtained from Heritage Western Cape to proceed with the refurbishment,” Charlton explained.
He also credits Jim Hallinan for his role as Heritage practitioner to the professional team. The building spots two ceramic murals on the Main Road façade, which are crafted by Isa Cameron at the Ceramic Studio in Olifantsfontein.
These blue-and-white glazed panels feature tall ships sailing over stylised Art Deco waves to honour the Delft and Dutch heritage of the Cape and to celebrate Muizenberg’s maritime communication history.
Modern transformation
Today, architect and design team Hoven Designs works with property owners Flip Floppers and building contractors W30, to repurpose the historic space carefully.
The transformation preserves original features, including pigeonholed mailboxes, the old mail sorting table, Art Deco fittings and parquet flooring.
“As technology changed so too did the tools of communication,” said Angelfish spokesperson Neke Ndlovu, “letters became emails, telegrammes became texts and plugboards became servers. For a long time the building’s role shrank until it seemed almost obsolete, but heritage buildings do not become antiquated when their purpose disappears; they wait. And because this building’s intent was never merely about mail, but more about the exchange of ideas, the movement of people and the weaving of community into the world, its wait is finally over.”
Angelfish is assisting Workshop17 with updating the public of the post office’s renovations.
Independent heritage practitioner James J Hallinan praised the restoration project: “This is a textbook example of how a redundant and even derelict heritage resource can be repurposed while preserving its intrinsic heritage qualities. It is further proposed that this will not only bring new life to this historical structure but infuse a highly interactive revenue generating element into this Heritage Protected Overlay Zone and thus, support the general economic empowerment and renewal of historical Muizenberg more widely.”
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