Page 15 - Landscape-Issue134

PROJECT

dsm-firmenich SOUTH AFRICA

The dsm-firmenich premises in Midrand were recently upgraded and have since
received a GBCSA 6 Star Green Star Interiors rating. Together with this, the facility
has introduced improved energy efficiency, rainwater harvesting, access to natural
light and landscaped gardens.

Professional Project Team
Client: dsm-firmenich
Architect and Project Lead: Marc Sherratt
Sustainability Architects (MSSA)
Landscape Design: Rosemary Sherratt
Grassland Expert: Abrus Enterprise
Environmental Consultants: Solid Green Consultants

sm-firmenich Workplace Lead for
Africa, Ashley Sams, explains that there
dwere two projects: firstly a complete
refurbishment of the premises and secondly
the Net Positive certifications for the site in
the categories of carbon, water, waste and
ecology.
Landscaping
The brief to MSSA was to create a locally
indigenous landscape. This led to the
achievement of the GBCSA’s Net Positive
Ecology rating for an existing site, technically
called Level 2 – Operational Ecology. This
rating means that the site has achieved an
independently verified and measurable
improvement of its native ecological system.
This focuses on locally indigenous planting
which is the basis of most terrestrial food
chains.
The vision for the design team was to source
the greatest diversity of locally indigenous
plants to the site’s historic vegetation type,
a critically endangered ecosystem called
Egoli Granite Grassland. The rating requires
approx. 15 % of the site to be regenerated
and this GBCSA rating was achieved, making Signage board with
the project a pioneer for urban ecological plant information
regeneration in Johannesburg.
Landscape design philosophy
The project showcases the variety of indigenous plants available and how
landscaping can be used to reverse local extinction in urban areas. Using the
important taxa of Egoli Granite Grassland, MSSA matched the vegetation
composition ratio of the new landscaping to this threatened ecosystem in
terms of the ratio of grasses to herbs, geophytes, trees and succulents.
This approach to landscaping is called a reference habitat, where a site of
pristine ecological health is the aim of landscape regeneration. The word
regeneration is used rather than restoration, as the latter means bringing the
site back to its original state, which in many urban settings is “near impossible”,
according to Marc Sherratt, MD at Marc Sherratt Sustainability Architects
(MSSA). Regeneration means using the site’s original vegetation type as a
reference, with the design team being able to adjust this in order to achieve
the highest possible biodiversity that the site can manage; the aim can also be
adjusted to include new local anthropogenic systems, such as afforestation or
climate change. BRIAN UNSTED LISA REYNOLDS
In total, 135 different species were planted and the 4100 individual plants are
all locally indigenous to Egoli Granite Grassland. Engaging with the landscape

Check us out www.salandscape.co.za Landscape SA • Issue 134 2024 13