early projects (pre-2000s)

‍keerom street: a part of dhk's heritage

dhk's history in the Cape Town CBD predates the merger. Buildings designed by the two original studios are scattered throughout the city centre, including along trendy Bree Street and neighbouring Long Street.

“The Keerom Street buildings are an important part of our history,” says dhk Executive Chairman and Founding Partner Derick Henstra. Directly opposite the Cape High Court is a KvCR building. This is one of numerous notable works by dhk Founding Partner Peter Fehrsen, who was a principal design partner at KCvR Architects at the time. Right next door at 42 Keerom Street stands a building by Derick Henstra Architects (DHA). A former printing press, the original redevelopment scheme was for loft apartments but the design eventually evolved into offices.

“We were designing very pragmatic industrial-type buildings. This was a forerunner to The District and everything else. Peter was creating similar designs on Dunkley Square,” says Derick, referring to The District office building in Woodstock and Dunkley Square in Gardens, Cape Town. Another key building in this early history is the Victoria Junction Protea Hotel in Greenpoint. This was a KCvR project, built in 1996. This adaptive reuse project revived an industrial former telecommunications building into a ground-breaking mixed use development comprising offices, loft apartments and the hotel, which still stands on its prominent corner site connecting the city’s edges with the V+A Waterfront.

DHA buildings The BMW Pavilion in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront and the Avalon Hotel conversion on the corner of Hope and Mill Streets in Gardens Cape Town also form part of the studio’s history. Both the BMW Pavilion, which housed a BMW exhibition centre as well as the first Imax theatre in South Africa, and the Avalon Hotel, home to ANOUK Furniture, still stand today.

Peter says of this early time: “These buildings are the cornerstones of our foundation as the successful studio we are today. Merging the two studios was a leap of faith from all the co-founders. While the partnerships dissolved over time, the dhk we are today is the result of the seeds planted by that original group in the late nineties.”