Blinds in Bantry Bay

Bantry Bay sits directly downhill from Fresnaye, on the same seaward flank of the mountain, in a tight run of cliffside apartments and villas squeezed between Kloof Road and the Atlantic with barely a garden's width to spare on most stands. The exposure here is even more direct than higher up the slope: glass walls face straight onto open water with nothing offshore to break the swell or the wind, and a good number of buildings are reached by a shared entrance and a lift rather than a private driveway.

The south-easter that reaches Fresnaye above continues straight down to sea level in Bantry Bay, and if anything it gathers pace lower on the slope as it funnels between buildings closer to the water. Salt spray reaches every surface here, not only the ones facing the sea directly. Most buildings run under a body corporate with its own rules on anything visible from outside — an awning fabric, a screen colour, a roller shutter box — and we build that into the process from the first call rather than discover it at installation.