_Holiday home of the week: a tropical masterpiece overlooking Cape Town's Table Mountain

Five-bedroom home in Hout Bay, Cape Town

Asking price: £2,516,245

At the very sharpest edge of contemporary design, few superlative do this property justice and, to use a hackeneyed truism, really does need to be explored in the flesh to be believed.

It a veritable feast for the senses, imbued with originality with surprises around every corner; imaginative, idiosyncratic and playful home building at its rawest.

A concentrated shot of exotica hidden in Cape Town's exclusive Hout Bay, this multi-functional, multi-faceted house defies convention and throws caution to the wind, combining intimacy with grandeur, quirkiness with practicality and urban mod cons with a sense of rural harmony. 

Open to and embracing of the curated tropical landscape, the house has been 'interwoven' into its natural hillside landscape, playfully dipping in and out of three quarters of an acre, prompting comparisons with a palatial Balinese rainforest lodge.

Numerous decks and terraces create a jigsaw of outdoor entertainment spaces spliced by a miniature network of canals, walkways and Koi carp ponds.

Water and nature are central to this extraordinary home, with integrated fish tanks and viewing windows forming the 'fourth wall' in several rooms.

A nine-seater jaccuzzi creates a wonderful relaxation area, framed by a remarkable tableau of mountain views over Orangekloof, the Vlakkenberg and the back of Table Mountain. It's hard to decide whether the views are more dramatic or the property itself. 

'Kidults' will be enthralled by the huge outdoor pool which has its own jungle-gym water slide, together with ropes, swings and a zip wire.

Filled with show-stopping artefacts, mosaic windows and design pieces, many of which were painstakingly hand-built by leading South African craftsmen, the built area of the property extends to nearly 1600 sq to include five bedrooms, outdoor showers adjoining suites, gym and sauna.

At the heart of the house is a cavernous, stone-clad living room with an immense hand-built fireplace serving as a focal point.

Two garages, one large enough to accommodate a basketball court, will house most car collectors' inventory. Or if wine is your thing, the cellar is a subterranean piece of art: vast, with a large feature table and bins set into the walls, surrounded by fish tanks.

Delivering a home owner's dream on many levels: comfort, security, unlimited recreational possibilities, space and charm, the property is equally suited to raising a family as it is adult entertaining on a grand scale.

This property is currently on the market through Knight Frank South Africa.