Page 11 - Landscape SA 101

PROJECT

Existing water feature refurbished by WBHO
root systems needed to be considered;
• when the project was in the design
stage, Cape Town was going through an
extreme water crisis, and plants chosen
had to be water wise, resilient and hardy.
A water tank was specifically designed
to accommodate a mixture of harvested
rain water and borehole water. The
planting is now established and has
resulted in a much lower water demand
compared to the establishment stage;
• the building was cut into an existing
slope to keep the roofline as low as
possible, resulting in a high retaining
wall at the back of the building. This was
finished with pigmented stipple plaster
and planted with Tickey Creeper; 400
litre trees were planted along the wall
to further soften the vertical scale of the
retaining wall.

Soft and hard landscaping

The planting palette is mainly indigenous,
except for an existing avenue of street
trees that was extended with Plane and
Liquidambar trees to supplement an
existing cluster. Most planting occurs in
structured planters that are clad in hand-
dressed grey stone. The design focussed

Braai and seating area in the open spaces between Phase 1 and 2

Landscape SA • Issue 101 2021 9