Contents
of April 1998
EDITORIAL
UPFRONT
TOWNSCAPE MILLENNIUM PUBLIC SPACES
COMPETITION
INSPIRATION
INSULT
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
TREE OF THE ISSUE
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EDITORIAL
We had a
spate of phone calls from Capetonians about the front cover of the Jan/Feb ‘98 issue.
The photograph of the view point on Table Mountain was reversed. We would like to thank
the ten individuals, who took the trouble to phone us, for their interest in our journal,
and apologise for the mistake which happened at the repro studio and was not spotted in
the final proof reading. We need to get down to Cape Town more frequently to familiarise
ourselves with the lie of the land - and that is exactly what we are doing, paying a visit
to the mother city in April to look at a number of new projects.
This issue’s
front cover is a slight departure from our traditional front covers of outdoor open
spaces. This is an indoor public open space in Midrand’s new Vodaworld, which we have
chosen because it displays a frolicsome use of lighting in keeping with the ambience of
the place and links in with the lighting theme in this issue. (See articles on pages 15 -
19.)
Watching TV
recently, I saw a programme on the new radio stations and heard a representative from one
of the broadcasting companies, well known for its super billboard advertising in
Johannesburg, say that they had not yet tried the same campaign in Cape Town: "I
suspect that because people in Cape Town are so conservative and aware of their
environment, that if you put up large billboards they’re going to be angry."
This is an indictment on Gautengers, and I sincerely hope that we are not going to
tolerate the giant structures advertising the All Africa Games that are defacing our
suburbs. They have set a precedent and already the predatory trailer advertisers have
crept into the strip of parkland on the William Nichol in Sandton.
An incident
that I witnessed last week might have been funny if it hadn’t been illegal and so
unprofessionally done - a hastily fenced in area, under one of the new billboard
structures in the road reserve of a major urban arterial, containing a number of cows and
the mobile sign reading ‘Save the Cows - Eat more Pizza’. Our urban open spaces
are precious entities and the Eastern Metropolitan Local Council has worked so hard to
keep our environment free of visual pollution. (See ‘Insult’ on page 25 and
article on the new outdoor advertising manual on page 6.)
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UPFRONT
World Environment
Day Symposium
The theme of
this year’s World Environment Day Symposium is: Ensuring a Sustainable Life on Earth
- A Challenge for Science, Engineering and Technology. The symposium will be held under
the auspices of EPPIC, the Society for Professional Engineers, the Associated Scientific
and Technical Societies (AS&TS), and the Habitat Council, at the Volkswagen Conference
Centre in Midrand on 4 June 1998.
The Challenge of
IEM in SA
The
International Association for Impact Assessment (South Africa) is hosting a conference
from 30 September to 2 October, 1998, at the Cathedral Peak Hotel in Kwazulu-Natal. The
theme focuses on innovative tools and methods in IEM.
Cleaner
production conference
The Southern
African Regional Conference on Cleaner Production (CP) is being held from 11-13 May at the
Eskom Conference Centre in Midrand. Amongst the international speakers will be Bjorn
Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Jonathan
Hobbs co-ordinator of the CP Programme at the UNEP Industry and Environment Office in
Paris (formerly director of the Industrial Environmental Forum in SA); Prof Cleophas
Migiro, director of the National Cleaner Production Centre (Tanzania).
Sustainable
Construction a practical approach
This
conference, aimed at those concerned with development and the built environment, is
scheduled for 19 - 22 August 1998, in conjunction with the Interbuild Africa ‘98
exhibition at Gallagher Estates, Midrand. The event will be divided into a two day main
conference covering topics such as energy and water efficiency in buildings, and land
issues, as well as urban renewal and local Agenda 21 issues - and a one day training
workshop.
Trees for PE
A new
project, funded by the Swedish International Development Corporation, aims to create
employment, train people in new skills and transform the treeless, disadvantaged areas of
Port Elizabeth. The Trees for PE project is in line with the urban forestry component of
the new National Forestry Action Programme. A variety of trees chosen in consultation with
civic organisations and councillors will be planted along major bus and taxi routes and in
cemeteries in 24 wards. Fruit trees will be donated to residents to plant in their
gardens. Businesses and individuals in PE are invited to support this project to increase
its impact.
Hopefully,
Trees for Africa will take note of The Urban Green File’s ‘Tree of the Issue’
which is indigenous to the Eastern Cape and well suited to coastal city plantings. (See
Rhus chirindensis, the Red Currant, on page 26)
‘Tree wise’
One of the
projects, currently underway, of the Krugersdorp branch of the Wildlife and Environment
Society focuses on reclaiming land that has been overrun by invasive trees such as black
and silver wattle, bluegum, poplar and syringa. This scheme was made possible by funds
donated by SA Philips. Once these alien species have been removed, the land will be
revegetated with trees indigenous to the area. The work done this far has been in local
game/nature reserves on the West Rand.
Joint venture
landscaping company launched
Sam Mhlungu,
Mpho Mgomane and Elias Moloi, The Garden Boyz, have been operating as a landscaping
company for three years in South Africa with clients that include the Gauteng Provincial
Administration and the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council. On 6 February, they
launched their joint venture with the Danish company Thomsens Anlaegsgartneri, one of
Denmark’s largest landscaping firms which specialises in large scale planting
projects and maintenance work. The joint venture was facilitated through the Danish
government initiative
Large indigenous trees available
Landscape
architects and contractors often find it impossible to source large trees in the
quantities they need. However, Jaques Malan of Malanseuns has been growing mainly
indigenous trees on their Rietfontein farm near Nylstroom for the last seven years. The
trees, 5 m tall on average, serve to increase the available design palette for landscape
architects. Malan has had custom made machinery built to load and transport the trees.
Some of the
indigenous tree species:
Acacia galpinii, Acacia sieberiana woodii, Acacia xanthophloea, Combretum erythrophyllum,
Cussonia paniculata, Dombeya rotundifolia, Harphephyllum caffrum, Podocarpus falcatus,
Pterocarpus rotundifolius, Rhus lancea, Trichela dregeana and Trichelia emetica.
Malan has
found that landscape architects show a preference for indigenous trees. As part of their
‘indigenous drive’ Malanseuns has also launched Multitray - a large polystyrene
tray with 60 ‘plug type’ compartments filled with indigenous groundcovers. Some
of the species available are: Agapanthus praecox ‘blue’, Carissa macrocarpa
‘Green Carpet’, Dietes grandiflora and Kniphofia ‘Royal Strain’.
Two schools
competitions contribute to Curriculum 2005
The Bontle
Tree Project in Kimberley, funded by the Swedish International Co-operation Agency, has
been extended to include the ‘Greening of Kimberley School’s Competition’
and this was launched in February with an attendance of over forty schools in the area.
Scholars are required to initiate a project which could include the planting of trees,
flowers and shrubs, collecting seeds or starting a nursery or vegetable garden. The
competition will be judged in August and prizes, sponsored by Game, SA National Parks and
De Beers, include a television, a trip to Vaalbos National Park, books, plants and more.
The Eduplant
National Schools Competition, funded by Eskom Community Development, has been run for four
years and has succeeded in motivating effective environmental action. Hundreds of schools
have initiated permaculture and greening projects, countrywide. All schools are invited to
call project co-ordinators Trees for Africa for Eduplant entry forms.
Board of
Investigation into nature conservation
Dr Z Pallo
Jordan, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, has appointed a Board of
Investigation into the institutional arrangements for nature conservation in S A. Mr
Justice Mark Kumleben, a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal, has been appointed to serve
as chairperson, while the other two members are Dr John Ledger of the Endangered Wildlife
Trust and Prof Stan Sangweni of the Public Service Commision.
The future
management of S A’s system of National Parks and other protected areas, with specific
reference to bringing decision-making and benefits closer to local communities, is one of
six terms of reference the Board are to investigate and make recommendations on.
Interested and Affected Parties that have been identified have been notified by post and
the terms of reference have been published in the Government Gazette.
Further
implementation of Agenda 21
The
Directorate of Sustainable Development of the Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism has published a summary of the outcome of the United Nations Special session on
Agenda 21 that took place in June 1997 in New York and was attended by an official
delegation from S A, including Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who reaffirmed S A’s
commitment to Agenda 21 as the fundamental programme of action for achieving sustainable
development. The document ‘Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21’
includes an assessment of progress made since UNCED, areas requiring urgent action and
international institutional arrangements. An annexure lists the programme of work for the
years 1998 to 2002 which includes aspects such as strategic approaches to freshwater
management, transfer of technology, oceans and seas, tourism, integrated planning and
management of land resources, atmosphere, energy and transport - with poverty and
consumption and production patterns listed as the overriding issues.
Environmental
rehabilitation in mining
A very
successful conference on ‘Environmental Rehabilitation in Mining’ was held at
the CSIR Conference Centre in Pretoria in February, 1998, where leaders in this field,
many of them natural scientists, from various mines and consulting practices discussed
innovative, sustainable and cost-effective solutions for rehabilitating mining land.
"The ultimate goal of environmental management must be to ensure that the legacy of
the development is not the destruction of a resource," said Andy Smithen, principle
engineer of consulting engineers and scientists SRK. According to Smithen, the mining
industry needs to add value to land with rehabilitation efforts, so that they can be seen
to be cost-effective, with the land being in demand after the mine has closed - or even
during mining operations.
Palabora
copper mine is also a wildlife sanctuary, while Amcoal’s Kleinkoppie Colliery has
been producing crops on rehabilitated land for the past five years with yields comparable
to land that has never been mined - and the Malibamatso people of the Lesotho Highlands
are watering their cattle in a rehabilitated quarry that was used during the construction
of the Katse Dam.
A number of
papers at the conference dealt with the importance of attaining a self-sustaining
vegetation cover on tailings dams and discard dumps. A cover that will not need costly
on-going maintenance - and it is generally accepted that the achievement of species
diversity is the key here. "A self-sustaining vegetation cover is underpinned by a
balanced ecology," said Mark Aiken of Amcoal Environmental Services.
Papers on
bioremediation (using micro-organisms to convert organic toxic waste into harmless
substances) and phytoremediation (remediation of contaminated areas with living plants),
presented the delegates with new technologies being investigated in SA, that have been
used, successfully, in the US, Canada and Europe.
The
conference illustrated the admirable spirit of self-regulation within the mining industry
in South Africa exemplified by a determination to strive for the best available practice.
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TOWNSCAPE MILLENNIUM PUBLIC
SPACES COMPETITION
The Urban Green File and Townscape are sponsoring a competition for those who
manage and / or own public open spaces within urban areas.
Who should
enter?
Local governments (municipalities), provincial and national government departments, public
or community organisations, landowners, developers and tertiary education institutions who
manage or own a public open space (park, square, street, campus or nature conservation
area) within an urban area. Consultants are precluded from entering but are encouraged to
motivate landowners to enter if they are involved in an appropriate project.
The
following categories will be contested:
*
larger parks (regional
or metropolitan parks, > 1 ha)
*
‘pocket parks’
(smaller parks, < 0,5 ha)
*
squares and streets /
malls
*
nature conservation
areas
*
campuses (tertiary
educational institutions)
*
parks and conservation
areas charging an entrance fee (e.g. botanical gardens)
Entries must
be submitted in the form of a report (A4 format) answering the various questions on the
entry form. The report must be accompanied by no more than 10 colour slides and a sketch
plan of the site.
Two
finalists in each category will be chosen from the written entries and photographs. The
two finalists for each category will be published in subsequent issues of The Urban Green
File between July 1998 and May 1999. After a visit by the judges and a subscriber’s
vote, the winner for each section will be announced in June 1999. The final winner
(overall best public open space) will be announced in July 1999.
Entry forms
are available from The Urban Green File at Tel: (011) 482 4706.
The closing
date for hand delivered and postal (according to the date stamp on the envelope) entries
is Tuesday 30 June 1998 at 5 pm. Entries must be delivered to 10 Victory Road Greenside,
Johannesburg. Entries must be mailed to PO Box 922 Parklands 2121.
Townscape Millennium Public Spaces Competition is sponsored by Enviro Elements /
Townscape, Tel: (011) 622 8820
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INSPIRATION
The flight from Egypt
The entrance
to Alexander Forbes Place on Katherine Street in Sandton is enlivened by a wonderful piece
of ‘shadow work’ sculpture based on an image that sculptor Rodney Place had been
carrying in his mind during a time spent away from South Africa - that of Johannesburg
emerging as a kind of 20th Century Ancient Egypt with its tombs of buried gold and yellow
pyramid dumps, a legacy of the dynastic mining houses. He and architect Sarah Calburn, who
had also been away from the country for some time, discovered that they had a common
interest in Johannesburg as a mining town and this installation for JCI/Alexander Forbes
is the first piece in what they expect to be a continuing body of work.
Rodney calls
the piece a public sculpture and what a pity that this is not strictly true, because,
although the usual security barrier is not across the driveway, the public have no way of
knowing that the sulpture is there and only the harsh driveway on which to stand and look
at it - if they do find it. Those who are employed in the building will slowly start to
understand, and to find their own interpretations of, this lively sculptural piece. It
bears looking at, time and time again, as the sun runs its course.
The
waterfall on the feature becomes the ‘parting of the waters’ in the desert of
granite and this sea is to be crossed by the migrating Sotho, small running figures of
light on shadow produced by the glass bottles on the wall. "We weren’t quite
sure whether they were trying to reach the promised land or flee from Egypt. The little
figures changed direction, from leaving to entering the building, about the time that
Cyril Ramaphosa’s consortium bought JCI,"said Rodney.
Looking on
are two large (dynastic) figures which have become known as ‘Phairou’ and ‘Unphairou’.
The shadow of Phairou appears in the middle of the waterfall late in the day (as
illustrated in the above photograph), whereas Unphairou’s shadow is near the doorway,
in the morning. Rodney commented: "Once you get into inversions, they seem to
generate themselves - like the levitating boat that fills with water and then tips and
empties".
The only
sour note is the row of exposed aggregate concrete bollards in front of the feature which,
aside from making it difficult to photograph, detract from both the sculpture and the
paving which is an appropriate foreground to the piece.
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INSULT
Arrogant,
disrespectful advertising!
Hyde Park
Corner in Johannesburg has been defaced with probably the tallest, free-standing billboard
ever erected in South Africa and the residents are up in arms. It is a serious insult to
both the environment and the residents of the area.The vista from the top of the hill has
literally been wiped out by the structure alone - it is 18 m in height (the actual posters
were not up at the time of going to print). Further down William Nichol Drive is a second
monster, not quite as tall, but equally ugly, in a lovely area of road reserve parkland.
When is the Outdoor Advertising Industry going to show some understanding of the fact that
bigger is not always better?
Johannesburg’s
Transitional Metropolitan Council (JTMC) gave permission for these mega-billboards without
consulting the Eastern Metropolitan Local Council (EMLC). The William Nichol is a major
arterial and its road reserves are JTMC property. The vast posters will advertise the All
Africa Games which means they will be there for two and a half years, but even after that
we won’t be rid of them because the contractors have been given a ten year lease
period. Residents of the northern suburbs will, hopefully, not tolerate this gross breach
of democratic principles and flouting of the EMLC’s by-laws.
An excellent
comment was made by Margie Leitner, co-ordinator of the Citizens’ Revolt Against
Poster Pollution (CRAPP): "These monstrous billboards will result in totally negative
publicity. Money would have been better spent in buying textbooks for our school children.
They could then advertise the Africa Games on novelty bookmarks. That way you would get
the message to every home in the country via our children." (Rosebank Killarney
Gazette).
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Adding value to all stages of the design process
Henning
Rasmuss and Anthony Orelowitz recently designed a retail centre in Brixton on a
combination of AutoCAD and 3D Studio MAX.
Our practice
was approached by an established nationwide developer to design a commercial precinct in a
high-profile location in Brixton, Johannesburg. For marketing purposes, the client
requested the usual coloured sketch plans and flat elevations. As an added-value service
available in-house, we offered to develop the design fully in three dimensions. AutoCAD
and 3D Studio MAX, on a Windows NT platform, were the software suites used throughout.
The primary
advantage of the Windows NT platform is the 32-Bit configuration. This allows one to move
efficiently and quickly between multiple views of one model, and between various scales.
The combination of the two drawing software packages enabled us to break away from the
usual working progression, from plans to sections to elevations. The revolutionary ability
is that of evolving and developing one single model from its basic constituent elements to
final rendered finishes. It is a truly three-dimensional design process, where the 3D
model is visible, in total, at any one stage of the design process.
While the
end-product may be seductive and appear to be like so many other rendered perspectives we
have seen, the software allows and forces an entirely different design process. We believe
that this process adds value to all stages of design and documentation, and is a powerful
tool for client, architect and, also, the other consultants.
The initial
design concept remains an intellectual and manual task, where sketches are done by hand
until basic spatial relationships are established. The outline plan is then drawn up in
AutoCAD and turned into an isometric plan projection. From here, the design process is a
highly accurate one where every single element is drawn to scale and in proportion and
added onto the overall model. The architect is constantly forced to make material
decisions, and the effect of every single decision can be assessed for overall impact or
effectiveness.
The process
is one of bottom-up resolution, working from the smallest element up towards the full
picture. At the same time, the overall model is visible at all times to test individual
decisions. The building is assembled from a virtual ‘meccano set’ of elements,
where all sizes are real and no decision can be left to chance.
Architects
may prefer, if only out of habit, to defer many decisions about a building as long as
possible. Here, one is forced to define every element. It is an initially slow and arduous
process. But the value that is added, by being forced to make decisions early, is soon
evident.
For
presentation purposes, as seen here, any number of views can be generated off the model :
aerial views, exteriors, interiors and day- or night-time renderings. Points of specific
concern to single tenants can be explored, fully. Material variations can be tested, and
surface finishes can be chosen from the software libraries or downloaded from the
internet. Real material colours can be scanned in and surfaces can be rendered in
realistic detail. Actual light sources, intensities and positions can be tested for
effect.
The power of
AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max is that all these choices can be assessed on the same initial
model. The three-dimensional form of the architecture can be tested at all stages of the
design process. If the practice of architecture is a form of communication, this software
is an empowering tool that brings the architect closer to clients and end-users. The model
can be manipulated at will and removes the barrier of inscrutability between the work of
the architect and the concerns of the client.
The building
begins to exist as one drawing, built up from all the constituent elements. Many clients
and most building end-users are not accustomed to reading conventional plans, sections and
elevations. It is only fair to make this medium available to them. And it makes the
architect’s job of communication easier and less prone to misunderstandings. This
software has certainly begun to revolutionise the way our practice communicates with
clients. And it will enable us to exercise a greater degree of control over the
documentation process and ensure better client service and a completed building of higher
quality.
This article
is the first in a regular series of articles that will be written by architects,
engineers, landscape architects and environmental consultants on information technology
applications in their projects.
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TREE OF THE ISSUE
Rhus chirindensis
commonly
known as the Red Currant
Horticulturist
Mandy Fick of New Plant Nursery in George has chosen Rhus chirindensis as the ‘Tree
of the Issue’. The tree has a natural distribution along the coastal areas of the
southern and eastern Cape and up into KwaZulu-Natal where it occurs predominantly in
forests and along rivers. Its distribution extends inland into Mpumalanga and the Northern
Province. Mandy says that this Rhus species with its adaptation to coastal conditions is
obviously far better suited to plantings in coastal towns, even down as far as Cape Town,
than other Rhus species - most of which are not adapted to the higher rainfall and not
only pick up fungal infections but become infested with thripps. She is of the opinion
that not as many landscapers would specify the up-country species at the coast, if they
knew the attributes of Rhus chirindensis. The tree also thrives in Gauteng, because it can
cope with light frost, as the adjacent lush specimen in the Pretoria Botanical Gardens
proves.
Mandy
describes the tree as having a deep umbrella shape to its spreading canopy. A substantial
yet graceful tree which can reach 20 m but on average is 15 m at maturity. Its leaves are
a darker green and larger than most other Rhus species and, at the coast, the small amount
of leaf drop in winter doesn’t present a problem and lets in the light. She says that
in George the tree teams with different birds when it is fruiting - the Knysna Louries
love its reddish brown berries - and that its orange autumn colours make the tree stand
out from the rest of the forest vegetation.
The tree is
very fast growing in her nursery, at a rate of ± 1 m a year from seed. She says that it
seems to be quite adaptable to different soil types, is fairly drought resistant and grows
well on the banks of tidal lagoons in the area where the water is brackish. Mandy points
out that when the plant is very young, it is free of thorns but it develops fairly big
thorns as it reaches ‘adolescence’, as a protective mechanism against browsers,
and then loses these again as it establishes. She says that this is a useful
characteristic in street tree plantings as it affords the tree some protection against
vandalism at its vulnerable stage.
Mandy says
it makes a wonderful shade tree on a lawn but needs to be pruned at an early stage to
ensure a single-stemmed tree, as it is inclined to branch into a multi-stemmed bush when
it is young. She commented on a magnificent specimen at Carmel resort in Victoria Bay
which she said was close to 20 m in height and growing near the buildings, without causing
problems because it has a non-aggressive root system. She also recommends the tree to add
height to a mixed screen or windbreak because it is wind hardy and makes an attractive and
appropriate combination with Rhus crenata, Diospyros dichrophylla and the Cassine species,
as these are all elements of the coastal scrub. They will form a solid screen and attract
a whole range of birds and insects in a balanced ecosystem.
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