Architecture in Cape Town

The history of Cape Town can be seen in the various architectural styles in Cape Town. If you take the Cape Town Explorer through town, you will see several buildings with particular architectural styles. You will see buildings in Dutch Colonial style and British Colonial style and everything afterwards.

Dutch Colonial Style:
When the Dutch came ashore in the 17th century, they brought their way of living with them. Many of the old building have a Dutch building style. One of the most famous building, built by the Dutch is Castle of Good Hope. The Dutch have also built a various number of houses, one of the best known of them is Groot-Constantia, the house of Simon van de Stel (the Governor of the Cape Colony), built in 1692.
One of the other best known Dutch buildings, is the Tuynhuis, built in 1751 in the middle of the Company Gardens, which were founded by Jan van Riebeeck, the first Dutch sailor who came ashore at the Cape of Good Hope.

British Colonial Style:
When the British Government took over the control of the Colony at the Cape of Good Hope, they also brought them their way of living. Several places around the world were already known for the Victorian style. Several years later, this style would also be popular in Cape Town.
One of the best known Victorian buildings is the former Town house of Cape Town, if you want to see more of the Victorian style in Cape Town, you should look around Long Street and Darling Street.

Modern Architecture:
During the Apartheid, they architects only used concreet to built, after the Apartheid, most people don't like these concreet buildings anymore.

Cape Town had the first skyskrapers of the continent. The first one built around 1940, and still one of the largest buildings around town. Nowaday's, the buildings in Cape Town are not the highest of the continent anymore, in Johannesburg and other cities in Africa higher buildings can be found.

Nowadays, several new building are built, but the Capetonian opinions differ, one say they like this new style, other say it is disgracefull.
Examples are the V&A Waterfront and Century City and the Convention Centre. The Convention Centre is a building that is definetly modern architecture.

Rich vs. Poor
In Africa a township is common suburb, also in Cape Town. Because the city centre is the area for the rich, many of the working locals live in these townships. One of these townships is Khayelitsha, the second largest townnship of the country, with between the 500.000 and 1 million inhabitants.
To see how these area's have developed during the years, you should go to the District 6 museum, where the battle against Apartheid is shown in relation with the problems the locals were experiencing.