House Plans

Early Cape Dutch house plans were built in sections one room wide, usually about 6m wide and never wider than 7.5m. The weight of the roof tends to push the walls outward, technically termed lateral thrust. This lateral thrust in the roof of the Cape Dutch house would have pushed the walls over, if the span was wider than 7.5m. This limitation on the width of the roofs actually gave rise to much of the charm and unity of the Cape Dutch style homes. At first, the houses were simple rectangles consisting of three rooms: the kitchen, the living room and a bedroom. The L-shaped house plan was the obvious next development for Cape Dutch house plans. A yard could be neatly tucked between the main house and the one wing.

At about the same time, round the beginning of the 18th century, the T-shaped house plan started emerging. The kitchen was usually housed in the tail of the building, so that the chimney ran up the back end-wall. The room in front of the kitchen became the dining and living area. Later in the 18th century, the earliest I-shaped house plans began to appear in the Cape. The earliest known I-shaped house plan is at Vergelegen.