Blinds for the architect glass walls on Higgovale's mountain slope.

Higgovale sits up on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, with Lion's Head immediately to its north-west and Camps Bay just over the ridge to the west — some of the steepest, most expensive stands in the City Bowl cluster. Because the ground itself is steep, what shades one window can be entirely different from what shades the window twenty metres along the same wall; orientation here has to be read house by house, not street by street.

It's also one of the ridge positions that feels Cape Town's south-easter hardest, along with upper Tamboerskloof and Vredehoek. From October to March the wind funnels straight up through the Bowl, so anything we fit outside the glass here — an external venetian, an awning, a zip screen — is specified wind-rated as standard, with a retracting sensor on anything motorised.

What we usually end up quoting here

• External venetians on a wide architect glass wall — the strongest solar control available, stopping heat before it reaches the glass, which matters given Cape Town's extreme summer UV.
• Motorised roller blinds for clerestory or double-volume glass that's genuinely out of reach.
• Roller shutters for a media room or bedroom that wants full external blackout — shading shutters, built for light and heat control, not security-rated.
• Wind-rated folding-arm awnings for an exposed entertaining deck that catches more breeze than a sheltered lower-Bowl garden.

We also cover the rest of the City Bowl cluster around Higgovale — Tamboerskloof itself, Oranjezicht, Gardens and Vredehoek.