In a home renovation in a Oranjezicht, Cape Town, Tensile Cables was asked to supply its stainless steel balustrade cable systems by Peter Cooper from HPC Carpentry and Joinery.

Balustrades appear on both the third floor between two sophisticated timber screens giving privacy to the bedrooms, as well as surrounding the deck and braai area below.

Rather than detracting from the timber, the stainless steel seemingly disappears into the background, and at the forefront is the beauty of the timber work and joinery. Timber also clads large portions of the building, and it was used to conceal structural steel eye beams supporting the wooden pergolas over the 2nd floor deck. The carpenter ran shadow lines into the cladding adding an aesthetic feature to the structure, visible from both the 2nd and third floors.

The home boasts beautiful views from its upper levels, and the client wanted a solution that both complimented the natural look of the architecture, and didn’t obstruct the scenery beyond.

See images of the project installation below.

Image courtesy of Design Indaba

Award-winning Spanish architects, Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa from Ensamble Studio were part of the 31 speakers at this year’s Design Indaba Conference 2018 in Cape Town.

One of their most iconic pieces showcased at the Indaba was their Structures of Landscape series created for and at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, USA.

The Domo, Beartooth Portal and Inverted Portal are monumental sculptures that sit on the 10,000 acre ranch under Montana’s Big Sky.

The sculptures were cast on site from the earth over 8 months through the winter. And they are now used to host musical concerts. The structures can be touched, sat under and walked through.

The sheer size of the ranch and that it only houses 9 sculptures in total allows each of the artworks at the Tippet Rise Art Center their own sculptural park.

“The land is the departure point of the design and the construction of Structures of Landscape. It is its reference and its support, also its matter. There is a strong dialect between the architecture that we built and the land,” Debora Mesa Molina, Ensamble Studio.

See the sculptures and read more about the Tippet Rise Art Center here.

Blunt Architect’s Pieter Steyn designed and built his own house 2 years ago and installed a beautiful floating staircase creating a majestic entry to their home. 14 steel steps are suspended by vertical cables offering not only support, but acting as an external balustrade.

Where the cables are fixed to the ground, a garden bed has been planted with shrubbery and creeper, which now 2 years later has travelled to the height of the cables where they are fixed to the stairway’s portico.

A cascading green wall subtly encloses the stairwell, and a guarded entrance offers guests some protection from the elements.

The design is modern and functional, making use of sustainable materials and it blends the home into its surroundings. Tensile Cables supplied the cables for the project.

Thank you to Pieter Steyn at Blunt Architects for the photography.

The installation after 2 years of growth.

The latest functionality we have added to our website is an online quote request feature via the product section of our site.

Our new product page allows you to quickly navigate through our product range and see the specifications, sizing and detailed system drawings of our product range.

Through our ‘Request a quote’ button, you are able to add product including the type and size that you want to a formal quote request which will be auto-sent through to us. We will then respond via phone or email with your quote.

Within the quote request form you are able to add further details about your project in order for us to still offer the technical sales you need and have come to expect.

We have a range of products available for browsing online already, and soon we’ll be adding more.

You can also still download our full catalogue and balustrade catalogue for browsing offline.

Payments will still be done traditionally via credit card in house or EFT once the product is on its way to your door.

Try it out.

After a great year in 2017, we look ahead to what’s in store for in 2018 and what we’d like to achieve.

Structural Cable Projects

Tensile Cables is looking to add further structural cable projects to our jobs list for 2018. We will still offer balustrade and trellis cable solutions, but will also be focusing on stay, bracing and other structural cable solutions. See some of our previous structural jobs here.

All new products on our website

It’s already possible to request a quote by choosing exactly which products you need directly from our website. Next year will mean even more products online and available for quote requests directly. Why would you want to receive a quote directly from our website? If you order regularly from us, you will be able to select products you are familiar with in the size & quantity you are looking for an receive a quote for this order. We will still offer the same technical support you are used to, but this streamlines the process. 

Rod Systems

As well as structural cable systems, Tensile Cables offers structural rod systems and we will be including these on our website in time for next year’s orders. Take a look at one of our rod systems projects done at the University of Botswana in Gaborone.

DIY Balustrade Posts & Cables

Now that Tensile Cables offers both cable solutions and posts for balustrading, it’s possible to install your balustrade at home. Or you can order from us and have one of our recommended installers install the completed system for you. These products to appear on our website before the start of next year.

Vertical Gardens

We have relaunched Vertical Gardens and the green wall solutions for both home and commercial spaces are available for order from the website verticalgardens.co.za.