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Vertical green wall in the lobby of the apartment building

Site challenges Soft and hard planting
The park contains only indigenous plant
Marais says that from a design point The plant palette for the sky gardens was material, allowing for sun and shade
of view, the most difficult aspect was straightforward but street edge and roof planting borders to be easily maintained.
sufficiently greening the southern shady terrace planting allowed Marais to be Instant Kikuyu grass was planted however,
zones of the building. Many of the “a little more adventurous.” On the roof permitting the public to use the open
apartments open to the south and have terrace, it was essential to ensure that grass areas for rest or play. To this end,
views onto the fourth floor parking deck. planting could sustain exposure to the picnic tables and linear facebrick seating
She specified screening plants such as harsh sun, high winds, heat and winter walls were provided.
Viburnum, Syzigium paniculatum, Murraya cold.
exotica and Trachelospermum jasminoides
in order to ensure durable, all year round
greening in these spaces.

With regard to the park site, the challenge
was the fact that it included a portion of
land that was a large asphalt parking area,
and this zone was almost permanently
used as an unofficial taxi and bus parking
zone. Marais absorbed this entire area
into the park, lifting the hard surface and
decompacting the ground. This change to
public utilisation needed to be carefully
dealt with as the taxi associations did not
support it, and it became necessary to
mitigate any potential danger and unrest.
Levels through the park were also treated
carefully; the boundary along the edge of
the apartment building was a difficult zone
as security and stormwater control needed
to be accommodated with minimal impact
on the park design and the budget. FSG
Landscaping moved a large volume of soil
to ensure that the scheme could work.

Steel pergola and planting on level 21, the clubhouse and pool

Landscape SA • Issue 92 2020 9