Contents for December 2003

EDITORIAL
About Fancourt’s links course and the Pica Awards

UPFRONT
News

IDENTIFYING INVADERS
Lilium formosanum and Arundo donax

TREE OF THE ISSUE
Piet Vosloo chooses the Forest Fever Tree

FEATURES

Waste management at Pilansberg National Park

SA Eagle Square and Mpumalanga Government Complex win Presidential Awards

The green principles of urban renewal

Designed to represent and express the values embodied in the Constitution

Justice Albie Sachs - about the Constutional Court

Unique combination of resources: Groote Schuur Estate 

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EDITORIAL

About Fancourt's links course and the Pica Awards
The long-awaited Presidents Cup has happened, amidst enormous enthusiasm, at The Links golf course at Fancourt outside George. The world’s best golfers were seen making the very best of what is known as a difficult course. Aside from the fact that the event proved to be one of the most excrutiatingly exciting, possibly in the history of the game, because it was so tightly fought and ended with the two sides sharing the Cup, the wild parts of the course proved that the habitat creation on this entirely man-made course has already been highly successful.

The aquatic life, particularly the birds that have made the 17ha of constructed wetlands their home, was seemingly unperturbed by the crowds of trampling spectators. There was television coverage of Red-knobbed Coots building their nests in shallow open water in close proximity to the hectic happenings on the course. The same birds with their white ‘faces’ were televised grazing in the semi-rough, while Hadeda Ibis went about their usual business of grubbing for worms, controlling insect life on the fairways, and sounded their mournful cries as they went to roost in the evenings, as though there was simply nothing to disturb their usual routine. The television commentary was punctuated with frog and bird sounds, and both commentators and cameramen alike were clearly fascinated by the prolific birdlife on the course.

Swathes of indigenous waterlilies created colourful blue and yellow patches in the wetlands that double as water hazards and the tees were backed by expanses of natural wildflowers – arums and helichrysums in full flower – providing the course with an element of ornamental colour far superior to the artificial beds of exotic pansies that manicured courses seem to prefer.

The commentators kept referring to the course as being an imitation links course, thereby highlighting the fact that it is an entirely man-made or ‘created’ landscape. A true links course would comprise natural sand dunes and run alongside the sea. Fancourt’s Links was built on an area of flat wasteland – alien infested old agricultural land and the runways of the old George airport – a good distance away from the sea. The dunes are man-made and planted with grasses and herbaceous plants indigenous to the area, with the specific intention of creating a wildlife reserve, alongside and in harmony with an international championship course.

Now that the President’s Cup is over, Fancourt will be proceeding with planned wildlife introductions to supplement the bird, reptile, amphibian and small mammal life that has come in naturally. These releases were held back intentionally because there was concern that the long spell of abnormal activity in preparation for the world renowned Presidents Cup (800 million television viewers) would have disturbed newly introduced faunal species. UGF will soon be hearing from the golf course managers about these introductions, which are going to be done in conjunction with nature conservation authorities, and updating the previous article done on The Links entitled ‘Transforming a degraded site’ in the May/June 2001 issue (see page 24). UGF would like to commend the management team, particularly superintendents Kosie Mentz and Ivor Peterson, and the owners, Hasso and Sabine Plattner, for what they have achieved this far, both for the environment and for the game of golf.

Much to our delight, Urban Green File was once again this year (second year in a row) awarded Pica trophies for winning both the architectural and the environmental categories in the Business to Business section of the Magazine Publishers Association of SA Awards – at a splendid event attended by between 600-700 people and held at the Sandton Convention Centre this year. The magazine was considered, by both groups of judges, to have an excellent editorial content and to be highly informative. A comment was made that the journal was somewhat ahead in its thinking, in that it addressed a multi-disciplinary audience on environmental matters. It was said to be a journal of consequence that would certainly be of use in the workplaces of its target readers. The architectural category includes the disciplines of urban design and town planning which, along with its regular coverage of sustainable building design, are often examined in UGF.

This edition of the journal, for example, looks at the contentious issues of the succession of cultural landscapes and the retention of both exotic plants and animals within the borders of a National Park, in the planning article on the Conservation and Development Framework for Groote Schuur Estate, situated on the slopes of Devils Peak in Cape Town. In a series of three articles dealing with urban renewal, UGF’s architectural writer Leigh Darroll looks at the transformation of derelict buildings and the restoration and adaptive reuse of historical buildings on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The project involves the recycling and improved use of existing resources, which is a ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ principle.

Errata
In the article on the Braamfontein Regeneration Project in the Sep/Oct issue of UGF, the illustrations used were incorrectly accredited – they were in fact by courtesy of Albonico & Sack, Architects & Urban Designers. Another glitch occurred in the article on Kenilworth Race¬course office development, where Doug Jeffrey, who has his own environmental consultancy, was incorrectly thought to be part of Eco¬sense. Doug Jeffrey was responsible for the extensive Environmental Impact Assessment done on the site, while Ecosense worked on various aspects including the drafting of the Operational Environmental Management Plan for the conservation area (the centre of the racetrack). Our apologies!

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UPFRONT

Diepsloot school children take good care of their trees
In support of the 16 days of activism for ‘No Violence against Women and Children’, last year, a tree planting initiative was sponsored by the South African Landscaper’s Institute (SALI) at Muzomuhle school in Diepsloot, north of Sandton.

SALI member Top Turf was approached by the Deputy Minister of Justice, Cheryl Gilwald, to assist the school in a tree planting to mark the 16 days of protest. The concept and the school had been identified by the Department of Justice and sponsorship was needed. Top Turf involved SALI, and the Institute’s members took the initiative and were enormously generous with their contributions – in fact, Chris Bowden of Landscape Solutions and chairman of SALI Gauteng, at the time, commented that the considerable input from a wide range of companies in the Green Industry, as a whole, had been enormously gratifying. There were so many sponsors (over 30) that it is impossible to mention them all by name – but donations were made of over 40 indigenous trees, labour, compost, fertiliser, flower seeds and equipment. Thabo Mbeki planted a tree at the tree planting ceremony in late November last year.

SALI decided to make each individual class in the school responsible for the planting and maintenance of a particular tree. There is a stake next to each tree bearing the name of the class responsible for that tree. Val Wamsteker, SALI’s director of operations, was very encouraged by the enthusiasm shown for the project by scholars and teachers alike. SALI has accepted the project as a legacy project and has kept regular contact with the school. This year in October, SALI awarded the children with certificates for the care taken of their trees and this will become an annual event, as the trees grow to maturity.

The enthusiam for the project was once again in evidence at the certificate ceremony, where representatives from each class came up to accept their certificates. Bowden commended the classes for the good care taken of the trees and said that, considering the adverse conditions of the dusty site in a cold area, the trees had shown an above average growth rate of at least 0, 5m in the past year. He commended the children for this, saying that the growth and health of the trees was evidence of the care taken – backed up by encouragement from headmaster John Ramarumo and his staff.

Air pollution monitor for Bellville South
The Air Pollution Monitor in Bellville South, unveiled at a ceremony in early November this year, was funded by local industries including Consol Glass Bellville, SANS Fibres, Nettex, Albany Bakery, Advanced Galvanising, Galvatech and African Products, and is managed and maintained by the local government authorities.

Cedric Jacobs, chairman of the Bellville South Environmental Forum (BELSEF) said: “This is a great success story for BELSEF, the local government, our community and the companies that support us. Air pollution is of great concern to us all. Being able to monitor emissions takes us closer to being able to preserve our beautiful environment.”

The air pollution monitor has been developed to identify emissions from industries in the area and their patterns can be established from data acquired. The emissions and data are captured on a 24-hour basis, throughout the year, and are presented to interested parties and the various stakeholders. The information is also available daily on the City of Cape Town’s website. “This is crucial for ensuring that industry is accountable for their emissions’ status,” said Jacobs.

At the unveiling ceremony, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Rejoice Mabudafhasi pointed out that the environment and the beauty of the Cape was a major tourism attraction, one that created thousands of jobs each year and brought new money into the region. Tourism is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative industries we have and we can ill afford to diminish it in any way.

“The dedication of all stakeholders in the Bellville South area to finding long-term sustainable solutions to the problems of air pollution must be lauded. It underpins our ability as government to ensure that we deliver on our constitutional mandate and that our people are afforded the right to a clean environment as stipulated in the Bill of Rights”, added Mabudafhasi.
Contact Zodumo Mbuli, Office of the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Cell: 082 502 4659. Tel: (012) 310-3899.

International Blue Flag Award for top SA beaches
As South Africa enters its third season of Blue Flag, certain beaches are sustaining excellence in beach management and rate among the top beaches in the world. The International Blue Flag Jury recently approved the following South African beaches for the 2003/4 season: Humewood Beach, Nelson Mandela Metropole (Eastern Cape); Margate Main Beach (KwaZulu-Natal); South Beach, Durban (KwaZulu-Natal); Hibberdene Beach (KwaZulu-Natal); Ramsgate Beach (KwaZulu-Natal); Marina Beach, San Lameer (KwaZulu-Natal); Umhlanga Rocks Main Beach (KwaZulu-Natal); and Grotto Beach, Hermanus (Western Cape).

In Europe, where the campaign developed over fifteen years ago, a Blue Flag is a well known environmental and tourism eco-label providing local and foreign visitors with the assurance that Blue Flag beaches adhere to international standards in water quality, safety and security, environmental information and environmental management. South African beaches flying the Blue Flag have to adhere to the same international standards.

The Blue Flag campaign is proving highly successful and there has been a significant increase in response from local authorities wishing to implement the campaign. The number of beaches entering the campaign as pilot beaches (the obligatory one-year developmental phase all Blue Flag beaches have to undergo) is indicative of the growing interest in Blue Flag in this country.

Local authorities participating in Blue Flag have reported a number of advantages attained from their Blue Flag status including an increase in visitors to their beaches; improved behaviour on the part of beach-goers (vandalism and damage to property has droppped significantly); local businesses are using their local Blue Flag for promotional purposes; property prices have risen for homes adjacent to Blue Flag beaches; and beach visitors are happy to be visiting a well maintained and managed beach.

These eight beaches join nearly 3 000 Blue Flag beaches and marinas, in 30 countries around the world. These include beaches in Russia (St Petersburg), Canada, Chile, the Caribbean and there is interest from Australia and New Zealand. There are even Blue Flags flying in Iceland.

In South Africa, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) is the national operator of the Blue Flag campaign on behalf of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s (DEAT’s) Coast¬care initiative, and in partnership with participating coastal authorities. Coastcare is a partnership programme involving the public and private sectors, led by DEAT, and moving towards the implementation of the White Paper for Sustainable Coastal Development in South Africa.

Website: www.blueflag.org  or www.environment.gov.za  or contact the Blue Flag National Coordinator, Alison Kelly at alisonk@futurenet.co.za.

Eduplant: Schools awarded for sustainable development action
The national schools greening and food gardening programme, EduPlant for 2003 culminated in an awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of the fifty four finalist schools that designed projects to improve their environment and quality of life. They achieved this through sustainable resource use and management, through improved food security and nutrition, and they use their projects for active learning.

Many are in extremely disadvantaged areas with little or no access to water, some bringing a litre of water to school each day to irrigate their gardens. Some have no electricity and most parents are unemployed and impoverished. Malnutrition is a problem many of the educators noted.

Linda Mngomezulu, Chairman of Eskom Development Foundation, was notably impressed with these excellent schools, that each won R500 and a large travel bag filled with posters, books, seeds, tools and many other resources for their schools. Eskom Development Foundation has funded this programme for the past nine years.

Simon Susman, ceo of Woolworths, announced that the new Woolworths Trust is joining EduPlant as primary funders and presented Food and Trees for Africa with a generous cheque for EduPlant 2004.

This year there was a notable increase in the number of learners showing awareness of HIV/AIDS and recognising the value of nutrition in caring for patients. There was also a marked increase in schools running poverty alleviation community outreach projects. The adjudicators, from the Departments of Water Affairs and Forestry, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Eskom Agri business, Working for Water and Food and Trees for Africa, were impressed with the increased quality of entrants from Limpopo, where many schools battle with insufficient water, yet have developed productive organic food gardens.

 Anne Harris of TIKKUN, a development organisation which aids transformation and partners in EduPlant, expressed their commitment to participating in this effective programme into the future. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has made a substantial contribution to EduPlant and continues to support the programme.

First prize in the Advanced Category was awarded to Ikaneng Primary School from Gauteng where the learners have designed and run a food garden and sustainable resource use and management programme at their school, and have involved parents and the broader community who now benefit from their efforts. They grow over 15 varieties of vegetables and herbs, flowers and fruit. They have developed windbreaks to stop the dust blowing into their classrooms, make organic compost, farm earthworms and recycle most of their waste. They stand out in Soweto as the greenest and most environmentally sustainable school.

The runner up in this category was Cinsta East Public School from the Eastern Cape which has received funding from the National Lottery Development Trust to work with the schools in their area to develop permaculture food gardens and training centres.

In the Intermediate Category Piet N Aphane Secondary School, Potgietersrus, impressed the adjudicators with food and fruit tree production, as well as an excellent waste management programme recycling cans, paper and organic waste. They are also developing an agroforestry project.

Mamanthane Primary School also from Limpopo was the Intermediate runner-up for their development of water tanks and other methods of harvesting water. They control invasive plants and have integrated livestock such as chickens into the gardens, where they have established a vegetable and tree nursery to generate further income.

The Emerging Category winner was Moriting Primary School, again from Limpopo. Working in difficult conditions this school has learned from a previous EduPlant winner in the area and has developed agroforestry and permaculture projects that include a diverse vegetable garden. They farm chickens and use them to weed, control pests and fertilise the garden. The community members and learners at this school work with people affected by HIV/Aids, providing them with gardening training and organic food and herbs.

Creating a lush and productive garden in beach sand seems an impossible task for most. Not so for Westville Primary School who won second place for doing exactly that in the Western Cape.
Contact Jeunesse Park of Food and Trees for Africa. Tel: 082 900 1738. Email: jpark@trees.org.za

First Eco-Schools in Africa
Fourteen South African schools, all in the Eastern Cape, made history on 18 November this year by becoming the first schools in Africa to be awarded Eco-School status. At an award ceremony held at the Cintsa East Public School in Cintsa, near East London, all the schools were rewarded with prestigious green flags and certificates for their environmental efforts over the past six months.

The schools are the first in Africa to join over 10 000 schools in 27 countries participating in an international Eco-School programme. The pilot programme – supported by WWF-SA and the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa – was launched in May and 130 South African schools registered for it.

Although Minister of Education Kader Asmal could not make the occasion, he sent a message of congratulations and encouragement to the schools through his environmental advisor Philip Ivey.

“I call on all schools to strive to achieve an eco flag next year and to embrace the opportunities the new curriculum offers with your hands, your hearts and your heads. This initiative will enable you to become life-long learners with respect for the environment and the ability to participate in society as critical and active citizens”.

Recipients of the Eco Flag Award are Bulugaha Public School, Byletts Combined School, Ngcamama Public School, Phozi Primary School, Dyam-Dyam Public School, Makazi Public School, Xhama Public School, Nkwezana Public School, Cintsa East Public School, Khayelitsa Public School, all from the Cintsa area. Schools from the Grahamstown area include Begelly Farm School, Tantyi Lower Primary School, George Dickerson Primary School and Grahamstown S.D.A. Primary School.

The programme provides learners with the capacity and skills to make informed decisions about their lifestyles, liveli¬hoods and relationships with their environment.

On registration, both teachers and learners commit to an ongoing process of developing lesson plans and learner-centred activities in line with Revised National Curriculum Statements. Each school chooses at least three focus areas, develops lesson and school improvement plans and records its progress in a portfolio.

The South African initiative, which is co-funded by Nampak and Danida, differs significantly from the programmes run in Europe in that it has been re-orientated to focus on continuous whole-school improvement.
Website: www.baypr.co.za http://www.baypr.co.za

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IDENTIFYING INVADERS

Lilium formosanum and Arundo donax
UGF’s regular column to help with the identification of invasive species that are listed in the amended regulations for the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act. Most of the information is taken from Lesley Henderson’s book ‘Alien Weeds and Invasive Plants’. For further information contact Working for Water’s Weedbuster Hotline: 0800 005 376. Email: weedbuster@dwaf.gov.za

Lilium formosanum
This lily species is commonly known as the St Joseph’s or Formosa Lily and is a Category 3 invader, shown here invading grassland in the Graskop area of Limpopo Province. The trumpet shaped, fragrant flowers are white flushed with reddish-purple and the flowering period is between January and March. The plant hails from Asia (Taiwan) and was introduced into South Africa as a garden ornamental. It invades grassland, moist sites, roadsides and plantations and is labelled a special effect weed – meaning that it is a serious environmental weed which, as a monospecies, can significantly degrade the value of natural ecosystems.

Arundo donax
Commonly known as the Giant or Spanish Reed, this is a large, robust reed up to 6m in height with pale to bluish green leaves. The leaf tips are firm but soft, while the inflorescence is cream to brown, silky and spear shaped. Arundo donax is a Category 1 weed which invades watercourses countrywide and also often occurs along roadsides and on other sites away from water – it is widespread in the Mpumalanga lowveld. The reed which originated largely from the Mediterranean was cultivated for ornamental purposes and screening. With its strong underground rhizomes, it is seriously difficult to control. Manual control methods need to include the removal of suckers and rhizomes or resprouting will occur as evident to the right. Follow-up treatments are essential and any regrowth needs to be sprayed with a systemic herbicide.

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TREE OF THE ISSUE

Anthocleista grandiflora
The Forest Fever Tree
Landscape architect Piet Vosloo of KWP landscape architects and environmental planners has chosen Anthocleista grandiflora as the Tree of the Issue because he has long admired it in the wild and because it is proving, in his experience, to be a good landscaping subject.

Amongst the dicotyledons, it is the southern African tree with the largest simple leaves, and Piet is partial to this noteworthy characteristic. The leaves are a dark glossy green and can reach the remarkable length of 1, 5m with a width of up to 450mm – the upper half of the leaf is wider than the lower half. Piet says the trees with the really large leaves are found in the dense growth of kloofs, whereas those in full sun are inclined to have smaller leaves. Its alternative common names in both Afrikaans and English, Grootblaarboom and Big-leaf Tree, reflect this characteristic.

It is a tall evergreen tree which can grow up to 30m in height and its natural habitat is the north eastern Limpopo province and down into Swaziland and northern KZN. Piet points out that Remarkable Trees of South Africa rates a specimen in the Lekgalameetse Nature Reserve in Limpopo as No. 26 amongst the ‘champion trees’ – 30m high, 1, 27m in trunk diameter at breast height and with a crown of 22, 6m in diameter. Piet says that on hiking trips in the forests of the eastern Soutpansberg and the Magoebaskloof area he has seen large trees with a trunk diameter of 8-900mm which have bark that is literally white in colour and smooth in texture – a wonderful contrast to the dark green leaves. He has recently been hiking in Magoebaskloof when the Forest Fever Tree was in flower and says that the scent of the flowers was everywhere: “You could detect the tree by its sweet scent long before you saw it.”

He says the tree grows well in the landscaped situation in warmer lowveld conditions but does not tolerate cold and particularly frost. It does very well if it is planted in a big hole with a good planting medium and is particularly fast growing – in excess of 2m annually. “It serves as a very good substitute for exotic specimen trees such as palms, with its slender, upright growth habit. It has only recently become popular amongst growers in the lowveld. Up to six or seven years ago it could only be found at the Skukuza Nursery. These trees were grown from seeds harvested from a couple of specimens in the northern Kruger National Park. When we started the landscape at the Mpumalanga Legislature in Nelspruit (ILASA Presidential Award winner – see page 12), Real Landscapes sourced all the stock at Skukuza Nursery and encouraged nurserymen in the Nelspruit area to propagate the tree. It grows quickly and easily in the landscaped situation and is a great asset because it makes an almost immediate impact.

“There was initially pressure put on us at the Legislature buildings to continue the theme of the Royal Palms that had been used along Government Boulevard but we suggested substituting with indigenous and chose to use Anthocleista grandiflora, as we knew the temperate climate was ideally suited to them – the height, colour and size of the leaves and the colour of the bark were our main considerations. The scale of the tree was important against the massive buildings.”

The trees have been placed in prominent positions all around the facility, usually well away from the buildings to give them enough space for height and spread. They have also been used in atria that have limited openings to the sky but the light levels are clearly sufficient for this forest species as they have grown at least 1m in the two years since they were planted. Piet has noticed that the Forest Fever Trees in the atria are relatively pest free, in comparison with the tree ferns in the same atria.

About 15-20 years ago, he planted a grove of these trees around a pool area on a private estate on the outskirts of Warmbaths (Bella-bella) and the trees are massive – at least 25m in height.

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Recycling and incineration
In view of a considerable increase in visitor numbers at Pilanesberg – one of the most popular wildlife destinations in southern Africa – and the resultant increase in waste generation, a coherent, responsible waste management approach was instituted some few years back, and this is being re-assessed on an on-going basis in line with the park’s continual striving to improve environmental practices. The approach involves recycling and incineration. Carol Knoll paid a visit to the park’s waste site immediately outside the Manyane Gate, in the company of the park’s head ranger for the northern section, Dan Khukhele, where she spoke to recycling contractor Rex Dlamini about his operation. Park Ecologist Mandy Momberg provided the background story.

Pilansberg has a shallow water table and in 1998 an investigation into the harmful effects of the landfill site at Manyane Gate was instituted, based on the Kruger National Park’s utilisation of incineration as part of their waste management strategy. Kruger’s policy was investigated by a team from Pilanes¬berg comprising Momberg, who was then the resource utilisation ranger, field ecologist Gus van Dyk and technical manager Jeff Wilby. The Pilanesberg team proved to the satisfaction of both the provincial Department of Agriculture Conservation and Environment (DACE) of the North West Province and the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, through a scoping exercise, that incineration was the best environmental practice for Pilanesberg.

Historically waste had been transported from all the camps, picnic sites, restaurants and staff houses to the waste site outside the Manyane Gate. The waste was sorted and recyclable materials such as bottles, paper and tins were recovered. The remaining waste was placed in an open pit, set alight and left to smoulder. When the pit was full, it was covered over as a landfill site. Current legislation deems this method of burning waste to be illegal, as the environmental impacts are unacceptable. 

After formal approval for the recycling/incineration plan was obtained, Pilanesberg sourced funding from the following sponsors – Kruger National Park, GMG Engineering, Highveld Steel, PPC Cement and Sappi – for the design and installation of an appropriate incinerator, which was erected, some two years ago, at the Manyane Gate waste site.

After the recyclables have been removed from the parks domestic waste, the ignitables are reduced from 4m³ to a spade full of ash within half an hour. Smoke emissions and toxicity levels are considerably reduced because of the high temperatures obtained through the efficient combustion process in the incinerator.

Local recycling contractor Dlamini explained that certain dry wastes which were not recyclable could not be burnt because of their inclination to produce black smoke and that these were taken away by the recyclables collector to landfill elsewhere.

During the tour around the sorting yard, which has been in operation for seven years, Dlamini explained that the company responsible for collecting the recyclables bought metals, cans, plastics, glass and paper from him. The glass for recycling was sorted into white brown and green glass, while the recyclable plastics were sorted into two different grades. He said that aside from the metal cans, the collector took away any scrap metal, including wire. He related how the larger used punnets were sold to pig farmers for transporting pig food. Some food and polish cans were considered by the collector to be subgrade. Dhlamini explained that the collector would also not buy some of the beer cans because the paint was too thick.

The ash from the incineration process is combined with garden waste and the compost produced is used by landscaping contractors Eagle Garden Services to fertilise the gardens of the camps. Kitchen waste is not utilised in the composting process because of the problem this creates with baboons. This waste is also incinerated along with any food stained packaging unsuitable for recycling.   

Momberg explained that the old Manyane Gate landfill was scheduled to be dug up and reworked, minus any remaining collectables, through the incineration process with the other ignitable waste, to avoid any further leaching. She said that the park was busy compiling statistics but that, at a guess, only between 5-7% of the original quantities of waste were now going to landfill.

The waste management facility provides an ideal site for the environmental education programme run by DACE, where children from local schools are taken to learn the principles of sound waste management.  This has created an increasing awareness of sustainable waste management amongst the surrounding local communities. The education project has initiated waste sorting at a number of local schools and the recyclables collector used by Dlamini also buys recyclables from these schools.

A small pamphlet on ‘Waste Management in the Pilanesberg National Park’, the purpose of which is to create awareness about responsible waste management, has been sponsored by Sappi. It makes mention of the fact that waste disposal is described by environmental legislation as an activity which may have a detrimental effect on the environment and that current environmental impacts in the park have been considerably improved: smoke emissions have been reduced, old landfills are being rehabilitated, groundwater pollution eliminated, recyclable materials recovered, while the ash from the incinerator is utilised in composting.

In conclusion, Momberg said that the park was striving to close the waste loop through the processes of recycling and reuse.

Combating global warming
Clean Development Mechanism project for Pikitup’s landfills
Currently greenhouse gas emission reduction targets are not imposed on developing nations, but these nations are encouraged to co-operate with developed nations to help reduce their emissions. With the industrialised partner providing the funding and technological assistance, such projects are known as Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs). The developed nation can score carbon credits in this way and these can be used to help achieve its greenhouse gas reduction commitment. It is a beneficial arrangement for both partners and results in a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Pikitup, the waste management service provider for the City of Johannesburg, has signed a letter of intent with the Royal Danish Embassy to undertake a CDM project to the benefit of both Denmark and South Africa. The project will entail the eventual installation of a methane harvesting plant and equipment at Pikitup’s Robinson Deep and Kya Sands landfill sites. Methane generated at landfills is a major contributor to global warming but it is a flammable gas that can be utilised for beneficial purposes such as electricity generation and industrial heating (see UGF, Words on Waste, March/April 2003 for article on utilisation of methane gas for vehicle fuel). Methane harvested from the Robinson Deep and Kya Sands landfills can be sold to local gas networks and can generate foreign income through the sale of carbon credits, along with helping to combat global warming.

Francois van Aswegen of Pikitup commented that, additionally: “In line with our long-term strategic goals for integrated and sustainable waste management, these projects will ensure that we run more environmentally-friendly landfill operations.”  

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ILASA 2003 Merit Awards
SA Eagle Square and Mpumalanga Government Complex win Presidential Awards
Biennially, the Institute of Landscape Architects of South Africa (ILASA) presents Merit Awards to its members in recognition of professional excellence in landscape architecture and environmental planning and management, through peer review. The Awards are conferred on projects that exhibit unique or remarkable aspects in their handling and landscape architectural content, concerning the approach, research, planning and/or design. The 2003 Merit Awards gala event, sponsored by Corobrik, was held at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town in late September and themed ‘Heritage – a LANDSCAPE perspective’. The gardens of the Vineyard Hotel were designed by landscape architect Ann Sutton, one of the founder members of ILASA.

Seven projects were considered worthy of Merit Awards and two of these, under the category of ‘landscape design’, Mpumalanga Provincial Government Complex and SA Eagle Square were considered to be of outstanding quality and deserving of special recognition in the form of Presidential Awards of Excellence.

The judging or peer review panel comprised the following landscape architects and evaluators from other professions: Deon Bronkhorst of Ian Ford Deon Bronkhorst Landscape Architects; Francis Carter, architect and lecturer at UCT; landscape architect Karen Fourie of EnviroTecure; landscape architect Tanya de Villiers of Chittenden Nicks de Villiers; ecologist Willem de Frey of EkoInfo; landscape architect Hendrik van der Hoven; and landscape architect Michelle Wheeler of Tshwane municipality.sign.

The 2003 Merit Awards gala event, sponsored by Corobrik, was held at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town in late September and themed ‘Heritage – a LANDSCAPE perspective’. The gardens of the Vineyard Hotel were designed by landscape architect Ann Sutton, one of the founder members of ILASA.

Seven projects were considered worthy of Merit Awards and two of these, under the category of ‘landscape design’, Mpumalanga Provincial Government Complex and SA Eagle Square were considered to be of outstanding quality and deserving of special recognition in the form of Presidential Awards of Excellence.

The judging or peer review panel comprised the following landscape architects and evaluators from other professions: Deon Bronkhorst of Ian Ford Deon Bronkhorst Landscape Architects; Francis Carter, architect and lecturer at UCT; landscape architect Karen Fourie of EnviroTecure; landscape architect Tanya de Villiers of Chittenden Nicks de Villiers; ecologist Willem de Frey of EkoInfo; landscape architect Hendrik van der Hoven; and landscape architect Michelle Wheeler of Tshwane municipality.

Riverside: Mpumalanga Provincial Government Complex The project was submitted by KWP NLA landscape architects in association and they were appointed to the project by the client, Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport (Mpumalanga Provincial Government), after winning a design competition. The Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature had decided to centralise all the legislative and executive functions of the provincial government in a single complex of buildings. By the time the landscape architects were appointed, the buildings of the complex had already been designed by Meyer Pienaar Tayob and Schnetel.

The site is on the outskirts of Nelspruit edged by riverine forest and sloping steeply down to the Nels and Crocodile Rivers. The brief required that the complex should reflect its place in Africa both in form and aesthetic, and the buildings be set with sensitivity into the natural environment. The complex “…includes appropriate responses to deal with the climatic conditions of the region, the use of locally available materials which generate the rich textures associated with indigenous architecture, and revisits the elementary structures, such as a basic dome, translating these into large-scale modern solutions.” (The Making of an African Building.)

KWP NLA were faced with the challenge of creating a new landscape that merged with and enhanced the fabric of the buildings but also in places, expressed itself for its own sake. The overall aim was to create a setting that integrated the buildings, the designed landscape and the natural environment in a seamless fashion. A second challenge was based on the principle that good civic architecture together with landscape architecture is about the making of important people places through the intelligent interplay of buildings and landscape.

The aim of the overall concept, established at competition stage, was to keep the majority of the site as natural as possible using mainly indigenous plant material and rehabilitating disturbed natural areas. The planting design responded to the two distinctly different facades of the complex: the eastern edge which opens up to the natural riverine landscape, while the western edge, which has a civic character with a closed façade, responds to the urban nature of the built-up environment. Concerns of rehabilitation and protection of an unspoilt ecosystem were paramount along the eastern riverine edge, while more formalised gardens were used for the cultural western zone.

Another objective that was almost fully met was that the plant material should be indigenous to the lowveld and sourced only from growers and suppliers in this region – and with the exception of the Cycad collection which came largely from the Eastern Cape, this was achieved. Water conservation was taken into account in the use of mostly drought tolerant species. Municipal water is used only in the courtyards and on planters, while water for the gardens is fed from the Nels River by means of two submersible pumps to irrigation storage tanks under the administrative building. The water is filtered and then fed by booster pumps to the external main irrigation line.

The following are some interesting statistics which give an idea of the extent of the built landscape: in total 790 trees, 6 000 shrubs and 51 000 groundcovers were planted (185 different indigenous plant species are reflected in the planting design palette), with 14 000m3 of soil moved for landscaping purposes and 3 000m3 of soil mix placed in the atria and external planters.

The landscape contractor, Real Landscapes was the joint winner of the South African Landscapers Institute top award (the SALI Shield) in 2003 for their work at the Riverside Complex (see Jul/Aug UGF 2003, page 12).

Judges’ comments
The judges made a unanimous decision to confer a Presidential Award of Excellence on the Riverside Complex because of its exceptional quality. The landscaping was considered a major piece of work in its creation of a setting for a complex of buildings of civic importance and its integration of the built landscape with the riverine and hilltop environments. The synergy between the design professions evident in the result was mentioned by the judges, as was the appropriate choice of materials in keeping with the context.

“The difficult task of mediating the monumental built form and the indigenous landscape is handled successfully through the conceptual device of a meandering divide, interpreted variously as a raised plinth of massed planting, a sunken court with a geometric landscape, a captured garden between pavilions or an urban square with civic gestures.”

SA Eagle Square, Johannesburg

The project was submitted by the landscape architectural practice of Green Inc. The square is an upgraded portion of the Hollard Street Mall in Johannesburg’s CBD which, at the time of Green Inc’s appointment, was severely subject to urban decay. The old water features were no longer functional and were standing empty – graffiti covered eyesores with tiles lifting and waterproof peeling. The paving had buckled and paving slabs were cracked. The project, one of the early catalyst rejuvenation projects in Johannesburg’s CBD, has succeeded in reclaiming a derelict piece of the inner city and transforming it into a lively and well-used urban open space. The need to reflect the history of the place was taken into account and accompanied by a desire to inject a new creative energy into the space, reflecting the new energy in the city and in the country as a whole. (See article by Henning Rasmuss in UGF Sep/Oct 2002.)

The old water features were filled in, the paving replaced – directional strips of cobbles in alternating colours were used as the basis of the design. Artist Marco Cianfanelli designed an abstract steel sculpture subtly introducing the client’s corporate image by casting an eagle shaped shadow on the square of honed sandstone into which it is embedded. Oval benches were designed and placed around the trunks of the large existing Planes. The paving lines created by the cobbles are broken by a more playful series of low seating walls set at an angle and these diagonal strips are continued by strips of highly colourful mosaics set into the paving and designed by Cianfanelli. The mosaics cleverly depict the street grid of Johannesburg overlaid by images that will be easily recognised by the citizens – from the bowls of fruit sold by street vendors to the typical combi-taxi and even a mosaic of Madiba. Laser-cut stainless steel Plane leaves are cast into the low seating walls, reflecting the scattering of fallen leaves.

Adequate lighting was important to improve safety at night. Custom-made light boxes create more colourful images of Johannesburg at night, there are recessed lights in the ends of the seating walls, while lighting bollards were installed on both street frontages. Renovation specialists Gordon Verhoef & Krause cleaned the façade of the building and the Ernst Ullman sculpture wall. The SA Eagle building once housed the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Bulls and Bears sculpture wall reflects this. This completely rejuvenated sculpture was so filthy, at the time of Green Inc’s appointment, that it was suggested that it be demolished. Two tall masts were installed when the Hollard Street Mall was pedestrianised and, like the sculpture wall, these mushroom-like items are period pieces and have been retained as such. TC Design Group assisted in the design of an entrance canopy to the building and a bus shelter on the periphery of the Square.

Green Inc commented that the project demonstrated how collaboration with artists, with their different design approach, could add an extra dimension to landscape architecture.

The Square is truly well-utilised. During the day the continual pedestrian traffic creates a vibrant energy through the space, and people sit down to eat their lunches and watch the passers-by.

Judges’ comments
The judges were unanimous in their decision to confer a Presidential Award on SA Eagle Square because of its exceptional quality.

“A powerful, delightful and world-class piece of urban landscape.”

“The project tackles the difficult task of the regeneration of South African urban public space with clarity and vigour, balancing the needs of corporate expression and the demands of a tough neighbourhood to provide a high level of public amenity.”

“While the artwork is both striking (mosaics), subtle (eagle sculpture) and humorous (falling leaves), the geometric integration of artwork and urban armatures is evidence of a powerful collaboration between designer and artist.”

Company’s Garden, Cape Town
The Policy and Action Plan for the Company’s Garden prepared for the City of Cape Town was submitted by OvP Associates. The brief required extensive research into issues of cultural landscape and interpretation, and into the history of the site.

Urban conservation planner Penny Pistorius provided conservation input into the masterplan and policy framework, while Dr Stewart Harris, architectural and space historian, helped with the analysis of the features, patterns and spaces of the Garden, assessed their spatial and heritage values, and identified constraints and opportunities for conservation and development. The work of these two people resulted in a separate Heritage Audit, which formed a strong basis for the masterplan and policies for the Garden.

The following vision statement was formulated which expressed a guiding philosophy intended to in¬spire decisions and actions: “The Company’s Garden is the green heart of Cape Town, a place of culture, deep historical roots, tranquillity and delight, enjoyed by citizens and visitors alike.” The over-arching principle to support the vision stated that any intervention in the Garden should enrich the experience thereof and add layers of meaning and history without destroying the cultural significance of that which already exists.

The Garden was subjected to a ‘place by place’ analysis which dealt with Government Avenue, the Lower Garden, the Delville Wood Memorial Garden, The Paddocks, the SA Natural History Museum Forecourt and Queen Victoria Street, in turn. The analysis looked at the essential character, qualities, values and significance of each section and suggested actions and projects.

Judges’ comments
The judges felt the document set new professional standards for the organisation and graphic layout of management manuals. It was commended as “a highly detailed analysis of restoration and revitalisation work intended to maintain the cultural precinct of the Garden, with a clear analytical framework and fine-grained prioritisation, thoroughly researched and rigorously organised”.

Centurion Environmental Management Framework
The Environmental Management Framework (EMF) for Centurion was submitted by Africon. The client was Centurion Town Council (now Tshwane Metropolitan Council – Centurion Administration Unit). The landscape architects were Africon, and they worked in conjunction with the Integrated Environmental Management Consultants, Environomics, and MetroGIS who provided the Geographic Information System input.

Centurion required a decision-making instrument for the identification of sensitive environmental elements in the area, incorporating typical management solutions and ‘red-flags’ for the evaluation of development proposals. The instrument was required to assist informed environmental decision making at the city-wide level and to facilitate the effective implementation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), as well as serving to streamline the EIA review process. The first practical application of the EMF was a study of the Hennops River Green Belt and Africon was responsible for the design, management and construction of the decision support system.

The EMF is intended to establish a comprehensive environmental, cultural/historical and socio-economic baseline for the Centurion City Wide Area; to determine and illustrate the over-arching environmental sensitivity of the area and to facilitate easy review of development applications in terms of the EIA regulations. The project entailed the development of an electronic/digital EMF on a GIS platform.

Africon considered the most unique feature of the Centurion EMF to be the dedicated, custom-designed, user-friendly viewer which could be installed on any desktop personal computer. It is the first time that the city of Centurion has had a comprehensive data base of this nature, which is able, through the text management parameters linked to every data feature contained in the spatial information sets, to establish objectives and parameters for the management of each environmental element.

Judges’ comments
The judges’ opinion was that this in-depth, usable scientific study had well-defined goals, and provided base¬line information based on actual surveys for future monitoring purposes. The information was considered to be relevant to the scale of the area.

Bronberg Strategic Environmental Assessment
The project was submitted by @LAND Landscape Architects & Ecological Planners, who were responsible for the technical project management, report writing and education of the public and the client. The client was Gauteng’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment & Land Affairs (DACEL), the project manager and public participation consultant was African EPA, the ecologists were Eco Assessments and the urban designers MCA Urban and Environmental Planners. Cultural heritage was dealt with by Udo Kussel and legal matters were the responsibility of Deloitte & Touche.

The study area is located in eastern Tshwane (Pretoria) and western Kungwini, straddling the two local council jurisdictions. The unique ecological and physical features of the Bronberg make it worthy of protection from conventional urban development and other inappropriate uses. The SEA recommends absolute insitu protection of Red Data species, conservation management of biophysical, cultural, historic and visual resources, and strong private landowner management within the law. The SEA is also based on the approach that private landowners must derive specific and tangible benefits from their active role in the conservation and management of this valuable ridge environment, which provides habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species and contains cultural and historic artefacts in excellent condition.

Judges’ comments
The panel considered the SEA to be a well-motivated study in terms of scientific and cultural references to address a challenging problem.

Dinokeng
This entry comprising all the elements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process was submitted by @LAND as part of the IUCN/IOD consortium under the category Environmental Management Frame¬work. The work was done for Gauteng’s DACEL. The key objective of Dinokeng was identified in the masterplan as being to contribute significantly to economic growth and poverty alleviation in the Gauteng province generally and in the Dinokeng area (stretching from Roodeplaat/ Elandshoek/Cullinan to Rust De Winter/Vaalbank) specifically, through the stimulation of a wildlife based tourism industry.

The following three sub-objectives were identified to guide all future development and management planning:
•            To maintain and enhance the ‘pristine African’ appearance of the landscape and its biodiversity, conserving the existing indigenous species, reintroducing and sustainably managing all the large wild herbivore and predator species that have occurred historically in the region and reducing/removing man-made visual impairments and other forms of pollution of the landscape, including alien plants.
•            To provide tourists with outstanding game viewing opportunities and other nature based experiences, supported by a range of market related accommodation options, so as to establish a thriving and sustainable tourist industry.
•            To maximise job creation, small business development, investment opportunities, land redistribution and any other opportunities for local disadvantaged communities, through sustainable tourism development and sustainable use of natural resources where appropriate. This should be done by way of private sector concessions, shareholding and investment schemes, land redistribution schemes and other appropriate contractual agreements with the private sector and local communities.

Judges’ comments
The overall conclusion was that the documentation comprised an impressive collection and interpretation of relevant information (based on specialist knowledge) on which to base future decisions.

Gongolo Wildlife Reserve Development Plan
The Development Plan for Gongolo was submitted by @LAND, and they were responsible for the overall project management and client liaison. The work was done in collaboration with ecologist and park planner, Roger Collinson of Collison Consulting, while Darryl Lombard of Lorton Consulting was responsible for the tourism component in the form of market assessment and strategising, assisted by Michael Gardner of the Sustainable Tourism Research Institute of Southern Africa. Prof Willem van Riet (Peace Parks Foundation) acted as specialist advisor to the project.

Gongolo is located in the Estcourt/¬Mooi River districts of KZN and the proposed reserve comprises sixteen farms, at present largely dedicated to cattle farming. The establishment of the wildlife reserve, in the light of the suitability of the area for game and associated tourism activities, is viewed as a feasible land use alternative. The development concept was based on a core area suitable for the establishment of a Big Five game reserve; peripheral development zones for the establishment of adventure or recreational activities, not specifically related to the Big Five experience; and a public access area linking to the existing Weenen Game Reserve to give day visitors the opportunity to visit the Big Five reserve.

The development plan is the product of a unique planning process which forged a strong synergy between the game reserve planning component and the market assessment and marketing strategy component. The final masterplan blends the biophysical and social attributes of the study area with market based and environmentally compatible nature based tourism opportunities, and the project’s financial objectives. A participatory planning process provided continuous input from the local community, essential to the sustainability of the final product.

Judges’ comments
A thorough study covering environmental, land use and tourism market research, manifesting extensive landscape planning and design skills.

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The green principles of urban renewal
A landmark for the new South Africa
Constitution Hill & the Constitutional Court
Urban renewal encompasses a number of ‘green’ principles, in terms of its transformation of derelict land or buildings to new use and its restoration and reuse of historical buildings – which, in effect, amount to a recycling and improved use of existing resources. As an urban renewal project the Constitution Hill precinct represents a significant investment in the regeneration of Johannesburg.

The Constitutional Court building itself is designed to represent and express the values embodied in the 1996 Constitution which has set South Africa on a new path in its evolution. At the same time as the history from which it has arisen is acknowledged, it embraces the present and points to the future of a democratic SA in which the Constitution protects the rights of all citizens and the Constitutional Court stands to safeguard those rights. It is therefore a powerful public building that can contribute significantly to the renewal of the city and to social regeneration. This is a lot to expect from a building, and is one of the reasons that the contextual precinct was considered so seriously in the design process. Together they are indicative of the extent to which the built environment and the conceptualisation of urban design, public space, public and private buildings, reflect the values of a society and create the space to accommodate and support those values in daily life.

The new Constitutional Court, currently under construction on the site of the former prison complex known as The Fort, is due to open in March 2004. The building results from an international design competition that was promoted by the national Department of Public Works and was won by the South African design partnership of OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions.

Constitution Hill
Paul Wygers from the competition-winning design practice spoke to Leigh Darroll about the urban design framework for Constitution Hill. Although the competition focused on the court building and did not call for urban design proposals for the precinct, Wygers explains that the design team looked at the precinct as a whole in order to define certain city-scale principles, which would determine the best placement for the court building within the site area identified by the brief, and would influence the design of the building in relating it to its context. Following from its original precinct plan, the practice was appointed to develop a masterplan for Constitution Hill, and subsequently also to handle a number of integrated community projects.

Constitution Hill covers an area of about 12,5ha on the north face of the Braamfontein ridge. Hillbrow extends to the east, to the west is Braamfontein, and to the south a presently neglected area of the city that has been earmarked for renewal as the ‘medical precinct’. Constitution Hill forms an integral part of the conceptual ‘cultural arc’ (as described in the Braamfontein Regeneration Project – see UGF Sep/Oct 2003), which sweeps from Newtown, through Braamfontein, the Wits Cultural Precinct and the Civic Precinct around the Metro Centre, to the hill.

The old Johannesburg Fort and the neighbouring Women’s Gaol occupy the southern edge of Constitution Hill, along the ridge. These historical buildings hold a significant heritage that lends weight to the transformation and new dispensation that the Constitutional Court represents.

The Fort was originally a prison and a police barracks, built in 1892. It was in the later 1890s, in the days of the Transvaal Republic under the presidency of Paul Kruger, that the prison was buttressed with ramparts and battlements to establish a defence post against the threat of British imperialism. When the British took Johannesburg in 1900, during the South African War, they imprisoned Boer soldiers here and history tells us that a group of Cape Afrikaners who fought with the Boers were executed at The Fort. It continued to function as a place of punishment and incarceration for another 80 years. North of the defensive ramparts were the Awaiting Trial Block and the original ‘Native Gaol’, which was extended in 1902 into ‘Sections 4 & 5’ – later known to many simply as ‘Number Four’. As well as criminals, opponents of the changing governments of the day and numerous political prisoners were incarcerated there – Robert Sobukwe, Albert Luthuli, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela amongst them. In 1983 The Fort ceased to operate as a prison and has since stood largely derelict.

The Women’s Gaol, which dates from 1909, is another heritage building that also carries aspects of South Africa’s history of separation and oppression. Black and white prisoners were held in separate sections, criminals and political activists, and many ordinary women arrested for pass offences or similar infringements. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was detained here after the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Since its closure the Women’s Gaol has been well maintained and is currently being converted to new use for the Commission on Gender Equality.

The power substation for Hillbrow is also located on the hill, towards the eastern edge. It is still operational and had to be accommodated within the new precinct development.

Wygers refers to: “a few quite simple urban design principles”, which the design team used to guide the overall precinct plan and, in turn, the siting and design of the Constitutional Court building.

Making connections
“Where the site previously had been an island site, specifically inaccessible to the public because of its nature as a prison, we needed to create connections with the neighbouring precincts,” says Wygers, “providing vehicular and pedestrian routes to and through the site.” In this way, the site itself becomes a connector in the broader network of the city.

Accessibility & movement
With the introduction of east-west and north-south routes, the total site is divided into land parcels of a size that makes each readily accessible both internally and from the surrounding roadways, either by car or on foot. Priority is given to pedestrian movement. The topography of the site, falling quite steeply northward from the ridge, indicated that pedestrian routes should run predominantly east-west, aligned with the contours. Interlinking walkways run north-south. Vehicular access or drop-off points are provided from all surroun-ding roads.

A network of public open space

New streets and squares structure the existing loose arrangement of buildings and create a legible framework of interconnected open spaces and outdoor recreation areas, linking existing and planned new buildings. Mainly hard landscaping materials are envisaged, to withstand a high level of foot traffic, although Wygers notes that there are some areas that especially lend themselves to greening – such as the ramparts of The Fort. Streets and squares will be lined with trees, a consistent and defining aspect of the open space network, and existing pedestrian unfriendly barriers, such as Joubert Street and Queen Street, are to be upgraded to become part of the pedestrian friendly open space network of the precinct.

Active building edges

Wygers emphasises the importance of active building edges – so that there is a direct interface between buildings and the street, there are no blank walls on public spaces, buildings open onto the pavement or a public square, windows or balconies overlook the street, there are no fences, there’s no intervening exclusive space. This principle was especially influential in the design of the Constitutional Court – in part a public building and directly accessible to the public, and also one in which progressive thresholds define more private space. It will apply equally to other buildings on Constitution Hill.

Landmarks
While the new court building is the primary landmark of the precinct, other public buildings may be developed as secondary landmarks. In view of the contours of the land, which would promote construction stepping down the site, the introduction of strong vertical elements was seen as important in the design of the court building, to signal its presence and make it stand out as a landmark. This will apply similarly to secondary landmark buildings.

Mixed use
A mix of land uses, within walking distance from Braamfontein and the high-density residential area of Hillbrow, will ensure that the hill is an active place – and activity maintains good security. While plans for new use of The Fort and the Women’s Gaol are already under way, Sections 4 and 5 will be retained untouched. Although the buildings are in a state of severe disrepair, they are seen as a core heritage component of Constitution Hill and will present visitors with a real sense of what prison life was like.

Existing residential buildings (former nurses’ residences linked to the old Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital) on the north-western portion of the site will be upgraded and retained for residential use and the old hospital building too will be refurbished and converted to residential use.

Plans for the other land parcels include a hotel, commercial and retail developments, a tourist information centre and related tourist facilities.

Wygers points out that the initial commitment from Blue IQ (the investment arm of the Gauteng Provincial Government) and the City of Johannesburg to the development of Constitution Hill has generated a lot of further interest from the private sector.

Managing the car
Care has been taken to provide a variety of parking options and allow for parking to be shared between various land uses throughout the week and 24 hours a day. On-street parking is provided on the surrounding roads and internal roadways. This, together with street trees to be planted, will contribute to reducing speed. The Constitutional Court has its own parking basement and bulk parking for the precinct will be in the super basement currently being excavated over the area beneath the new land parcels A to D, on the western portion of the hill. A total of nine basement levels will be constructed in different sections, following the fall of the land and linked by internal ramps. Access to the super basement is provided off internal roads from Sam Hancock and Joubert Streets.

Bus and taxi drop-off points are located outside the entrance to The Fort on Kotze Street and holding areas are on the northern edge of the recreation grounds on Sam Hancock Street.

Scope of workAs well as developing and implementing its winning design submission for the court building, OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions is responsible for: infrastructure development of the Constitution Hill precinct, development of public spaces and upgrading of the surrounding streets. The practice is also involved in the so-called ‘integrated community projects’. These encompass the upgrading of a number of neighbouring facilities that are associated with the core precinct, as outlined below.

No.3 Kotze Street
– a four-storey building, designed by Gordon Leith, served originally as the ‘Native Ward’ of the old Johannesburg Hospital. After being abandoned, it was occupied by squatters and was only recently cleared for refurbishment and reuse as part of the Constitution Hill precinct.

Hillbrow Recreation Centre

– east of Constitution Hill, was originally a mess hall and recreation facility for the wardens of the prison complex. This facility now belongs to the City of Johannesburg (Region 8) and is used as a sports development and recreation centre as well as for various community programmes and services. In addition to the upgrading of the existing building, an extension is planned to provide a new multi-purpose community hall.

The Governor’s House and grounds – the residence of former prison governors, neighbours the Hillbrow Recreation Centre and these facilities have been assimilated into the ambit of the Recreation Centre to provide additional space for community use. The premises are used mainly by church groups and by the Street Kids Programme.

Barnato Park High School sports facilities – in Berea, were made available to the City on a temporary basis while the public sports grounds on the Constitution Hill site are being used by the contractors as a layout yard. This led to an upgrading of the school sports facilities which will continue to be available for public use, by arrangement with the City, once the recreation grounds on the hill have been reinstated.

Time plan
The first site visit for the Constitutional Court design competition was in July 1997; the winning submission was announced in April 1998; the project team moved on site in October 2001 and the court building is due for completion by March 2004. Infrastructure development is proceeding across the precinct and, amongst the other projects planned for the hill, which are being handled by different project teams, the premises of the Commission on Gender Equality in the former Women’s Gaol are expected to be the first completed after the court building.

Constitution Hill: Professional team
Client: Johannesburg Development Agency
Project managers: Arup (Pty) Ltd
Architects & urban designers: OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions cc
Quantity surveyors: Hamlyn Gebhardt in association with Koor Dindar
Civil engineers: Arup Matla
Structural engineers: Arup (Pty) Ltd in association with Sibanye Consulting
Mechanical engineers: Charles Pein & Partners & Khatima Engineering Services JV
Electrical engineers: VBI / Emzansi JV
Wet services: DSB Consulting Civil Engineers \Heritage consultant: HMJ Prins Architects
Landscape architects: African Environmental Design
Town planner: Nico Botha Town Planners
Land surveyor: Steve Blanckenberg
Fire consultants: Dynamic Fire Solutions

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Designed to represent and express the values embodied in the Constitution
The brief for the international architectural competition for the new Constitutional Court building was issued in July 1997. Design architect Andrew Makin comments that it was “a very comprehensive and well thought out assembly of documents”, a tribute to the promoter – then the Department of Public Works – and the parties who contributed to its preparation.

The brief addressed, firstly, the pragmatics of the accommodation requirements for the court, the required relation between working areas – which conveyed an explanation of the workings of the court, as well as specific performance criteria for the building.

The second and more complex aspect of the brief, called for a building that would represent the value system of democracy as it is contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. It was required that people visiting the court should experience and understand those values.

“Furthermore,” says Makin, “it was essential to acknowledge the significance of the site – as a heritage site and a prison where former political prisoners had been incarcerated – while creating a new court building that stands for the defence of democracy and human rights.” He also points to the significance of the fact that, geographically, the Braamfontein ridge is the highest point of the Witwatersrand watershed from which water runs either to the Indian ocean from the northern face, or to the Atlantic ocean from the southern face.

The brief cited the Union Buildings, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, as a reference in respect of scale, stature and relationship to its environment, but specifically indicated that the colonial attitude inherent in the design of the Union Buildings and its remove from the populace – isolated on a hill – should be avoided.

Makin also comments that the brief was careful not to imply any particular resolution for the court building, stating only that any ethnic style, including the colonial, should be avoided and directing the architects rather to be inventive.

“In our design submission,” he says, “we sought to respond primarily to the values expressed in the Constitution, taking cognisance of the social and political history of the country and of this particular site, as well as the contemporary socio-political context and, importantly within this broader view, the economics of the contemporary building industry. We also, of course, had to work with the constraints and opportunities of this urban site.”

Locating the building
The brief designated the eastern portion of the hill – which was occupied by The Fort, Sections 4 & 5, the Awaiting Trial Block and various prison outbuildings, that then belonged to the Department of Correctional Services – as the site for the court building. (At the time the brief was issued, most of the western portion of the hill belonged to the Department of Health; the land has since been consolidated to allow for the development of the hill as a precinct.)

The design team sought first to determine the optimum placement for the Constitutional Court within the area prescribed by the brief. This process was guided by the urban design principles outlined by Paul Wygers in the article on the Constitution Hill precinct. “Very simply,” says Makin, “these principles derive from observations of what makes cities work. The next question we asked ourselves was what makes cities democratic? And the answer here relates to choices. Democratic cities offer people choices – which, in turn, relates to freedom of movement, freedom of access, and appropriate, mixed land use that meets the needs of the people and offers them a range of amenities and opportunities, conveniently.”

The site chosen for the new building entailed the demolition of the Awaiting Trial Block. “This raised some controversy,” says Makin, “although it was one of the buildings that SAHRA (the South African Heritage Resources Agency) had conceded could be demolished.

“The decision was deliberate,” he says. “It allowed for the creation of Constitution Square at the southern edge of the Constitutional Court, which, by contrast with the former Awaiting Trial Block, is an open, public space – a place where people can meet and gather freely – a freedom that was denied by the apartheid government. The creation of Constitution Square is a considered gesture, intended expressly to overcome that restriction and the wider oppression that it represented.”

Importantly, the four stairwells of the Awaiting Trial Block are retained, two being incorporated into the court building along the interface with Constitution Square, and two standing alone in the newly created open space – all of them to be extended vertically into steel-screened towers or beacons, which will stand as landmarks on Constitution Hill.

Planning
The court chamber and entrance foyer, in the south wing of the court building, are directly accessible to the public from Constitution Square. Thus the place where democracy is debated is located in the most public space of the building. Makin highlights the point: “This debate belongs to the people.”

The library, which is also partly accessible to the public, forms the north wing of the building. Thus the two most public functions accommodated in the Constitutional Court are the most visible and are located to enable easy access for the public.

The administration wing, on a north-south axis, links the foyer and court chamber and the library. An internal public walkway parallels this wing, running along its western edge, enclosed but largely transparent – to the internal administration offices and externally to the Great African Steps. This external procession of stairs, paved with bricks from the demolished Awaiting Trial Block, is stitched like a seam between the new court building and Sections 4 & 5 of the old prison to the west, “a pathway between what was and what is hoped for,” Makin suggests.

The judges’ chambers are accommodated internally, east of the administration wing, in a series of office suites on three floor levels. All north facing and overlooking a courtyard to the east (which is framed by the court building and the Hillbrow substation on the eastern boundary of the site), these suites are arranged in uniform sequence also to run parallel with the administration wing. They are separated from it by an inner passageway, a light, triple volume space with timber decked bridges at the different floor levels that afford the judges private access to each other’s rooms and to the court chamber and the library.

“The plan of the building is very simple,” says Makin. “It answers to the accommodation brief, the requirements for public and private space, and manages the interface between them. It also responds at the urban design level, as a perimeter building, to interface directly with the public open space around it, while framing a private internal courtyard.”

Language
It is important in the urban environment that buildings should convey their purpose through their form and expression. “People should be able to see and understand what the building is about,” says Makin. “This is empowering. If a building doesn’t express its function, it obliterates any relationship with the public; it stands dumb, like Johannesburg’s Metro Centre.”

In the court building we have sought to communicate, through the language of the building’s form, what it is about. And this expression shifts, with the different functions accommodated.

The timber entrance doors to the foyer of the court building stand eight metres high. The space is formed in concrete, though largely transparent to the exterior, populated by slanting columns, and alert to the movement of the sun with skylights that are cast as slots at various angles into the concrete roof slab and closed by projecting glass boxes externally. One of the stairwells of the old Awaiting Trial Block projects into the space, unrestored and a direct reminder of what this place used to be. A small area of the basement level of the old building is exposed below the floor level of the foyer.

The court chamber is reached from the foyer via a second set of tall timber double-doors, detailed with hand-worked brass inlays. In this forum, the internal volume is completely open and undivided, using changes in floor level to define the spaces allocated to the judges, counsel, and the public – on open terraced seating. Galleries are also provided for the press and for visiting judges. The enclosing walls are substantial and, towards the southeast corner where the first of the old Awaiting Trial Block stair towers has shaped the chamber, are packed with bricks that were recovered from this demolished building and set aside for reuse. At the street level of Constitution Square externally, a narrow ribbon of glass, about 30mm high, is inserted into the south and east walls of the chamber.

From the internal public walkway along the western edge of the building, you can see the people of the court going about their business, as you can from the Great African Steps outside. A ramped pathway set within the African Steps zigzags between the contours of the site – presenting the meandering alternative of an easier walk. Celtis africana to be planted along the pathway will offer shade to people on the steps. The internal walkway is also ramped in part, and stepped, to negotiate the gradient of the site, and is planned to be a public art gallery – Makin refers to “the exhibition stairs”. The entire west façade is glazed, and protected by steel screens, with doorways all along it. People can choose to walk outside or to go in to shelter from the weather or to view the art.

The twin-roofed north wing, which houses the library, is expressed as “a box of filtered light”, in Makin’s words. With its concrete screened façade, modulated by vertical timber-clad bays, and rising three stories internally though standing five stories high from the ground level at this point on the site, it is the most visible component of the court building from the north. “The library talks about knowledge, wisdom, enlightenment,” says Makin. This idea is emphasised in the “tower of light” that forms the northwest corner of the library where the Rex Welsh collection of antiquarian law books will be housed.

The judges’ chambers, by contrast, take on a domestic scale. Uniform suites are provided for each of the judges of the Constitutional Court and each suite includes office space for the judge, a secretary and two legal clerks. “They are like monks’ cells,” says Makin, with unique, handcrafted, wrought iron gates marking progressively private thresholds, “so that a judge may seclude him or herself away to contemplate the case at hand.”

He points out though that the judges chose not to have a private restaurant or dining room but would rather use the public amenities that will be provided on Constitution Square and elsewhere in the precinct.

Materials
“We worked with a limited palette of materials,” says Makin, “and basically, in the industry at present, one is working with two quite different aspects of building. In the on-site work – the wet works of concrete, bricks, plaster and paint, and slate flooring in parts of the building – the finish is quite rough and the tolerances are relatively lenient.

“In the off-site work, on the other hand, manufacturing processes are becoming increasingly sophisticated, achieving sleek, refined finishes and more precise tolerances. This can be seen in the glazing, for example, in the timber panels and decking, in the acoustic screens.

“And there is a third experience that arises from putting these two different working economies to¬gether,” he adds.

It must also be noted that particular attention has been given to detailing and to opening up opportunities for individual artists and craftsmen to contribute to the making of this public building. Their work can be seen in timber doors and wrought iron gates, carpets, light fittings, etched panels, mosaics, nose edgings on stair treads, and in the emblems currently being designed for the ventilation chimneys. The briefs for these works were prepared by the architects and submitted for open tender, with appointed craftsmen later being directed on site in respect of each installation. Individual artworks have also been commissioned for particular positions in the building.

Sustainability
While the north/south orientation of the main public spaces of the court building and of the judges’ chambers is most appropriate for passive or low energy climatic controls, the east/west orientation of the administration wing (which suited the urban design requirement for a perimeter building) necessitated some climate mitigation. This is evident in the screens to the glazed west facade, and in the layering of the internal space which sets the administration services back from the west wall, inside of the temperature mediating zone of the public walkway.

In consultation with Arup, the mechanical engineers, and with the client, it was decided that the rock store system should be used to provide a low energy means of controlling the interior climate of the building. This system, developed from ancient methods used mainly for cooling buildings in different parts of Africa and around the Mediterranean, was used by Arup in the International School in Harare (see UGF Nov/Dec 2000). It has not before been used in a building of the scale of the Constitutional Court.

In principle, the rock store system increases the thermal storage capacity of the building, enabling it to store coolness (absorbed from the cold night air in summer) or heat (from warm day air in winter), which can then be transferred to the interior spaces. It relies on a climate with a high diurnal temperature range – as exists on the highveld.

In the court building, about 200 linear metres of packed rocks are held in subterranean chambers around the inner courtyard. Shallow ponds outside the judges’ chambers and a wider, deeper water trough aligning the library wing also contribute (though minimally) to cooling or warming the intake air.

Mechanical fans are used to drive the cooler air, in summer, or warmer air, in winter, from the rock chambers through channels in the floor plenum to floor-mounted outlet vents, to moderate the internal temperature of the building.

At the Constitutional Court, the system works in conjunction with ventilation chimneys which are installed to extract hot air from the interior, by natural stack effect. The steel chimneys, which can be seen on the roof of the administration wing, are fitted with fans to accelerate the release of hot air. (The internal ventilation shafts also house rainwater down-pipes and electrical cabling.)

Makin says that the rock store system can take six or seven degrees off the extremes of outdoor temperatures to create a more moderate interior climate. Internal temperatures would generally then be within the 26°C maximum defined by international office standards.

He emphasises the importance of involving the client in the decision to use this system and of their understanding that the temperature would still fluctuate inside the building. “It’s not like setting a conventional air conditioning system to a fixed temperature of 23°C,” says Makin.

He also commends the client on choosing to pursue this low energy route, although it should be noted that some supplementary provisions were required.. A conventional mechanical air conditioning system is installed to service the basement archives (to ensure a stable environment for archival material) as well as the court chamber, the auditorium and the training room. These latter spaces are designed for gatherings of people and a passive climate control system would be inadequate to manage the physical body heat generated by such numbers of people. Provision is also made to accommodate a conventional air conditioning system for the court building should the present system prove inadequate. Nonetheless, the fact that the Constitutional Court has chosen to use a predominantly passive air conditioning system sets a good example for responsible energy consumption and should stimulate wider awareness of this aspect of sustainability in building.

Concluding comments
Makin emphasises that the Constitutional Court building is the consequence of a process. “We did not begin with a clear image of the outcome and we were careful not to present such an image before the design process could be completed. It’s a process of rational, incremental decisions, taken within the bigger picture framework. It’s the process of creating a place rather than an object or a preconceived outcome. Through this process the building made is true to itself and its purpose.”

Makin acknowledges that this requires considerable faith on the part of the client and he is grateful for the extensive contribution made to the design process by numerous players: from the Department of Public Works, the brief writers and those involved on an ongoing basis regarding maintenance and other such issues; the judges of the competition and their representatives who concerned themselves with the development of the design until it was bedded down; and the Constitutional Court judges themselves who participated on the building committee and, along with the professional consultants, brought more knowledge and skill to bear on the design development and greater clarity on their expectations of the building and its working requirements.

In conclusion, Makin says he hopes that the building can contribute to restoring the dignity of the people of South Africa, that it will be a building of which they can be proud, and that it can contribute to rebuilding a culture of “publicness”, of collective public ownership and collective public responsibility for public space, notions which were annihilated historically.

He also hopes that the building could become an iconic place in the consciousness of South Africa, symbolic of the country’s value system.

Constitutional Court of South Africa for the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development: Professional team
Client: Johannesburg Development Agency
Architects & urban designers: OMM Design Workshop and Urban Solutions
Design team: Paul Wygers, Janina Masojada, Andrew Makin
Project architect: Christine-Anne Paddon
Quantity surveyors: Hamlyn Gebhardt in association with Koor Dindar
Structural engineers: Arup (Pty) Ltd in association with Sibanye Consulting
Mechanical engineers: Arup (Pty) Ltd in association with Toon Herman Associates
Electrical engineers: VBI Projects
Wet services: DSB Consulting Civil Engineers
Heritage consultant: HMJ Prins Architects
Acoustic consultants: Acusolv
Landscape architects: African Environmental Design
Town planner: Nico Botha Town Planners
Land surveyor: Kirchoff & Associates
Fire consultants: LJK Fire Engineering Consultants
Main contractor: Rainbow WBHO Joint Venture

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Justice Albie Sachs - about the Constutional Court
“People protect the tree, so the tree protects the people”            
Justice Albie Sachs, one of the 11 judges of the Constitutional Court, was a member of the adjudicating panel who selected the winning design in the architectural competition for the new court building. He has subsequently been involved extensively, as a member of the building committee, representing the Constitutional Court, in the development of the project as it has progressed. He shared his views on the new Constitutional Court building with Urban Green File.

What does justice mean in our country today? How do we symbolise what the Constitutional Court stands for? We asked ourselves these questions when we set about developing the emblem for the court – and we found the answer in a design of people beneath the tree. This is consistent with the notion, traditional in Africa, of justice being weighed and debated by a group of community notables in the shade of a tree. It also speaks of openness and transparency, and of responsibilities – as the people protect the tree, so the tree protects the people, as the tree is nurtured and respected so it will grow.

“We wanted to move away from the tired old symbols of the scales of justice to an iconography rooted in Africa and recognisably our own.”

These same considerations were brought to bear in the design of the new court building. “In this country,” says Sachs, “we do not want whispering corridors hung with stiff portraits…we do not want a copy of the Old Bailey, or any other intimidating court structure. We fought hard for our Constitution. It is the first democratic Constitution South Africa has had. And, in honour of that struggle and of our new Bill of Rights, we wanted our own building, our own court, that is too, recognisably rooted in Africa.”

Since it was formed in October 1994, the Constitutional Court has occupied conventional office premises in Braamfontein. The site of the old Fort Prison was selected for the new court building after other less appropriate options had been investigated. It was chosen specifically because of its historical and contextual associations – this is the context out of which constitutional justice emerges and evolves.

Walking through the old Fort, along the ramparts, looking down on Number Four – the so-called Native Gaol – and across to the neighbouring Women’s Gaol, Sachs says, “The history of our nation is written in the pain in these walls. British, Boers, Blacks all have been imprisoned here. These buildings hold the memories of hundreds of thousands of people – some imprisoned for breaking the curfew, or the pass laws, gambling, smoking dagga, or for more serious offen¬ces, many imprisoned for their political beliefs, and yet others from the community who rallied round them, to support them through their suffering, never giving up on the struggle, never losing hope for democracy.

“The construction of the new Constitutional Court on this site seeks to transform this negative history into a positive force; not to deny it but to assert that what sometimes seems hopeless is achievable.”

Sachs makes the point that one of the reasons the winning architectural design was selected was because it recognised the significance of access to justice for all in the context of this history, and allowed for the best movement of people to and through the court building and across the site, linking it to its neighbours in the city. “This is a place of encounter; it is not a forbidding, exclusive, bureaucratic edifice. Everyone is welcome here. Everyone has access to justice under the law and the Constitution. The Bill of Rights is written to safeguard human dignity, equality and freedom.

“The architects also understood the significance of making this building a building of Africa, in Africa, and a building for the people,” he says.

The symbol of the Constitutional Court, the idea of justice under a tree, is quite distinctly translated in the foyer of the new court building, which is conceived – as Sachs describes it – as a clearing in a forest. “It is an organic kind of space, with its slanting columns partially clad in mosaics in browns, blues, greens – the multiple colours of the forest, in designs inspired by the seeds of trees in Africa. The concrete floor is patterned with filtered sunlight, shifting as the earth turns through the days and the seasons. By this very simple act of opening the building to the natural light of Africa, it is authentically located in time and place. And people in the building are in touch with the natural environment.”

At the entrance to the foyer, Sachs points to the words inscribed in concrete. Each of the 11 judges of the court wrote the key words of the Bill of Rights: human dignity, equality, and freedom, in one of the 11 official languages of our country, in her or his own hand. So, our Constitution is written in concrete.

The timber entrance doors to the court building will be carved with words from the Bill of Rights in the hand signals of sign language, which receives special constitutional respect. This idea was proposed by the artist Andrew Verster. Many wood carvers are currently working on the door panels.

In the court chamber, different floor levels position the judges, counsel, and the public in relation to each other. “Judges articulate the law,” says Sachs, “but the law arises from dialogue between the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, the people, the media, and other actors. The careful design of the court chamber symbolises this dialogue by allowing for direct and open interaction between all parties, within a dignified and stately space.”

He emphasises that all the sessions of the court are open to the public. “The judges are selected to consider the cases brought before them but society too must play its part,” he says. “People who believe their rights have been intruded on can bring their cases before the court. The old bricks of the demolished Awaiting Trial Building which clad the walls of the court chamber remind us that we can never take democracy for granted.”

Importantly too, he points out that the court chamber is designed acoustically to ensure that the true voices of the people are heard. There is no need for artificial amplification. “The less reliant we are on artificial light, or climate, or acoustics, the more human the interchanges in the court will be.”

This approach to constitutional justice, founded on human rights, and rooted in Africa, was thus also central to the decision to employ a passive cooling system in the new building, using rockstores and ventilation chimneys rather than artificial climatic controls. “Apart from being expensive to install, operate and maintain,” says Sachs, “artificial air conditioning is enormously wasteful of resources. Instead we make use of the cool summer night air and the warm winter sun, that are natural to our highveld environment, to create a very human climate in the building – one that shifts with diurnal and seasonal changes but within a manageable range.

“This makes the Constitutional Court not unique, but I would say a landmark in contemporary building. The judges are hopeful that it will work!”

A word must be said, in summary: on the court’s collection of artworks – mostly donated works, from many different South African artists, reflecting the democratic diversity and vitality of our society – which will be displayed in the public gallery in the new court building; on the artists and craftspeople who have contributed in many different works to the making of the new court building; and on the landscaping – another art form, where Justice Kate O’Regan has been involved in ensuring that only trees and plants indigenous to the highveld are used.

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Unique combination of resources: Groote Schuur Estate
Win SAPI award for best urban planning project
The Groote Schuur Estate, an important culturally complex component of the Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNP), was bequeathed to the nation by Cecil John Rhodes in 1910 to be used as a park for the people and has been the subject of study and debate for many decades. SANParks has embarked on a process of ensuring that the assets of the internationally renowned CPNP as a whole are "appropriately managed for the protection of ecosystems and ecological integrity, and to provide spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and other visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible", according to the Integrated Environmental Management Strategy prepared in 2000.

The CPNP commissioned Chittenden Nicks de Villiers (CNdV) to undertake a Conservation and Development Framework for Groote Schuur Estate and this was completed in 2002. The framework is founded on the principles of sustainable development which promote the role of appropriate and sensitive development to benefit conservation, social equity and economic viability – the so called ‘triple bottom line’. CNdV’s planning and management proposals for the Estate, which include the identification of concession opportunities, were acknowledged by the South African Planning Institute in 2002, when the practice was given the national award for the ‘best urban planning project’. Carol Knoll interviewed Derek Chittenden of CNdV, a practice of urban and environmental planners, urban designers and landscape architects.

Chittenden said that the work had involved grappling with the complex interface of development and conservation, as well as issues of ‘culturally appropriate’ landscapes within a National Park. The CPNP is circumscribed by the Cape Metropolitan Area and encompasses the scenic Peninsula mountain chain of some 60km in length, including the world renowned Table Mountain, and is recognised globally for its unique and diverse flora. He commented that some of the more thorny issues during the planning phases had been pressure from the University of Cape Town (UCT) located on the perimeter of the Estate for more land to be used for built expansion and parking, as well as the issue of the succession of cultural landscapes and existence of non-endemic animals.

Rhodes’ will created the Groote Schuur Devolution Act of 1910 which was drawn up to ensure that buildings erected on the Estate would be used for public purposes, within a park to which continued public access was to be allowed. The Cape Argus of 1898 commended the profound wisdom of Rhodes’ intentions in quietly buying up "several miles of mountainside round his Dutch residence" which he must have envisioned that "…in the ordinary course of things the speculative builder (would) cover with dwellings more or less ugly, and it (would) be lost to nature and the people for all time".

The present remaining extent of the Estate, which has unfortunately been significantly eroded away with time, is considered to be "a place of grand proportion" and of "pivotal visual significance, in that it forms a striking transition zone between the urban and wilderness domains. Significant influences characterise the relationship between the Estate and its edges – both urban and natural. These have important implications for the management of the Estate" (GSE:Conservation and Development Framework (GSE:CDF) report).

Chittenden said that their work on the Estate had been backed by a sound foundation of policy in the form of the SANParks Corporate Policy (1998) and the Integrated Environmental Management Strategy (IEMS) for the CPNP (for which Common Ground Consulting was given the International Association of Public Participation’s Project of the Year Award for 2000/2001 – see UGF May/June 2001), as well as the CDF prepared for the entire park. The White Paper on sustainable tourism and the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism were also referred to in the GSE:CDF.

The GSE:CDF was funded by WWF and the first phase, completed in June 2000, built on much earlier work commissioned by the Department of Public Works and provided an analysis of the site, an historical assessment and statement of significance in conservation terms, and preliminary recommendations concerning conservation management and possible development of concession opportunities.

The second phase, completed in September 2002 (once further funding had been sourced by CPNP), entailed detailed planning and management proposals involving national, provincial and local authority input and extensive public engagement. The key thrusts of this report were to make recommendations to SANParks on landscape management strategies for the Estate in areas such as erosion control, footpath management, visitor management and replanting of suitable vegetation, and to prepare detailed proposals for the various nodes and precincts that could include concession opportunities. A public open house was held at Newlands Forest where the reports were made available and detailed and comprehensive poster displays explained the thinking behind the GSE: CDF to the people to whom Rhodes had bequeathed his Estate

Chittenden said that the planning phase of the park (and therefore the Estate) had been supported by three champions, namely David Daitz, Howard Langley and, most recently, Brett Myrdal, manager of the CPNP. At the time of the interview with Chittenden in August this year, he expressed the hope that there would shortly be a move into the implementation phase to preclude any further damage to and decay of the unique natural and cultural assets of the Estate and to enhance tourist amenities so that the inherent economic value of the Estate could be fully realised. The process is now finally moving into the ‘concession stage’, based on SANParks policy with the reappointment of CNdV in November this year. The CPNP has initiated the concession process and Chittenden is hopeful that the various concession opportunities will be advertised by mid 2004.

Landscape management recommendations
The overall guiding principle which would serve to create a place of great significance at the local, national and international scale, warranted by the position of the Estate which forms a ‘gateway’ into the city of Cape Town – being a focal point on the slopes of Devil’s Peak and on the axis of the primary road network – was to recognise the unique assemblage of social, cultural, architectural, political, historical, biophysical and aesthetic values of the Estate. The restoration and preservation of this unique cultural landscape necessitates a consistent landscape management approach, and the establishment of a dedicated and specialist management team for the Estate was proposed in the GSE:CDF.

One of the key recommendations was to create two distinct management zones – one above the lower jeep track, where the more natural landscape could be protected and rehabilitated, and one below the lower track where the culturally significant landscape could be restored and perpetuated.

General landscape management proposals involved the regeneration of the natural plant communities, comprising renosterveld, fynbos mosaic and forest on the upper slopes, through the removal of the invasive alien species (including eucalypts) and the establishment of a palette of appropriate species for replanting in the natural areas (see article on ‘Renewing the Newlands Forest’ in UGF Sep/Oct 2003). Measures to prevent erosion and restore eroded slopes were also taken into consideration.

In the lower precinct, it was recommended that culturally appropriate plant species, such as the exotic stone pines and oaks of the Estate, should be retained and replanted, provided that they did not threaten the locally indigenous species. The so called ‘Gateway Parklands’ area would benefit by being enlarged to about 100ha, with the essential retention of open vistas to ensure the perpetuation of a "grand landscape". All invasive disease prone trees should be removed and dead and fallen stone pines eradicated, while a programme to reinstate the stone pines, a cultural landmark of that area of the Estate, by reseeding and replanting, should be initiated. On the basis of a specialist report, it was recommended that grazing areas for animals be substantially enlarged and appropriate antelope species retained and introduced to maintain the ‘paddock’ environment. Rhodes initially introduced animals into the area so that the people of Cape Town would have an opportunity to experience "the animals of the plain". It was suggested that a concession opportunity for this area in the form of game drives or guided walks should be explored, which would allow visitors closer viewing of the animals and provide more knowledge about the Quagga breeding programme in the parklands, which is already creating interest.

Chittenden spoke about the initially intensive debate with both park management and the public that had arisen out of the proposal to retain and replant the exotic stone pines in this, one of the National Parks, historically known for their conservation and rehabilitation of the natural, indigenous environment. He said there were passionate arguments on both sides, commenting that SANParks’ mission statement in fact supported the conservation of landscapes with cultural and historic value. The debate raised three possibilities: the radical intervention of cutting down the stone pines and rehabilitating the land to its original renosterveld (it was the Koi who had turned the area into grassland for pastures); the ‘do nothing’ alternative – which would allow the stone pines to die out naturally followed by a process of natural rehabilitation; and, lastly, the opinion that this was one of South Africa’s greatest cultural landscapes and it would be arrogant to alter the course of this renowned man-made landscape. The GSE:CDF accordingly recommended the enhancement of the cultural landscape with the mass replanting of stone pines to ensure their survival, as many are reaching the end of their lifespan. The plants should be planted in clumps to ensure a consistent height and maintain there intended aesthetic value in their historic context on the slopes of Devil’s Peak.

Another recommendation in the GSE: CDF was that a comprehensive signage and furniture system should be implemented. It was suggested that a commercial sponsor should be sought for this initiative. Critical linkages from the Estate to its surrounds needed further exploration and detailing – such as a necessary long term linkage to the historic Groote Schuur residence on the Lower Estate. Additionally, the system of scenic walks and hiking trails was in need of enhancement, with the inclusion of interpretive trails through the various distinctive landscape domains, all of which could be backed by corporate sponsorship.

Development opportunities
One of the most important aspects of the ‘client brief’ was SANParks’ commitment to keeping access to the CPNP open and affordable to the man in the street, and this would be in keeping with Rhodes’ bequest – a park for the people. Chittenden spoke about the vital need for economic sustainability, as part of the triple bottom line, saying that outsourcing of commercial opportunities, such as braai and parking facilities and guided tours, would help to fund the management of the Estate and to enhance visitor experience without impinging on the principle of open access. He said the CDF for the entire CPNP was founded on the "notion of gateways" – channeling people into the Park and that it was possible to manage 80% of the impact on 2% of the Park site. He pointed out that years of investigation and planning had gone into SANParks’ concessionary process and that the Groote Schuur Estate had enormous potential to draw even more significant visitor numbers, taking the carrying capacity and sensitivity of the site fully into account, through the provision of tourist facilities by concessionaires.

All the potential concession opportunities will be subject to stringent sustainable development and responsible tourism principles explored in the GSE:CDF. The normal legislative process in terms of Integrated Environmental Management including Environmental Impact Assessment procedures will be followed in the case of each activity, once preferred partners have been identified.

The GSE:CDF’s development proposals were based around the three nodes of the Zoo Site and its environs, Rhodes Memorial, and the Mount Pleasant complex, comprising the former cottage of Lady Anne Barnard and the adjacent terraces. It was recommended that restoration, reuse and new construction should be guided by an appropriate restoration architect. The areas identified for possible development either included existing buildings or had been previously disturbed by development and had a reasonable level of access and linkage to services – they had the capacity to accommodate sensitive development that would not create detrimental or significant impacts.

The Zoo and Memorial precincts were considered to be the two nodes offering the greatest opportunities for innovative development to enhance visitor experience, support tourism and conserve historically valuable buildings and landscapes. Making creative use of these nodes would help reduce SANParks’ financial burdens and thereby meet the objectives of their corporate policy and the CPNP’s IEMS.

Zoo site and environs
The CDF identified two restaurant opportunities: a ‘popular’ restaurant or tea room within or near the old lion enclosure on the lower Zoo site; and an ‘upmarket’ restaurant in the meadows above the zoo, utilising the existing terrace above the reservoir or the existing twin-gabled house. Picnics for tourists and students (with UCT on its doorstep) could be sold from the restaurant. Any concession opportunity should be subject to the restoration of important fabric on the site – either that which was existing but in disrepair or that which was known to have existed, and to a detailed landscape plan. The restoration of the old aviaries with their decorative features could provide facilities for an operation similar in nature to the "World of Birds’, which would not only be appropriate historically but would provide further interest for those visiting the proposed restaurant facility. The lower zoo site could be formalised as the primary ‘gateway’ to the Estate and provide a departure point for a shuttle service to Rhodes Memorial and a departure point for game drives – including providing formal trading opportunities.

Chittenden voiced his concern about vandalism and theft at the Zoo, saying that the sooner concessions were awarded for this node, the sooner the site would be secure. Sundials and mosaics from the stairways in the zoo have been stolen, and the historic sleeping house in the waterfowl enclosure, designed by Herbert Baker, was recently under threat and nearly demolished to stop vagrants from sleeping in it.

Rhodes Memorial
The existing restaurant at the renowned Memorial, designed by Herbert Baker, could be extended to incorporate the adjacent terraces. Another opportunity might be the provision of a small interdenominational chapel for weddings and a small interpretation centre detailing the life and works of Rhodes and/or Baker. The ‘Rhodes bench’, which had been vandalised, needed to be restored and protected. Any concession opportunity had to be subject to landscape upgrading of the entire node, and upgrades to service infrastructure. Landscape restoration proposals included removing trees on the terrace demarcated in Baker’s plan and replacing these with fynbos, as Baker indicated. Other terraces could be planted with stone pines and oaks and a silver tree forest instated, according to Baker’s drawing (which was unearthed by CNdV in the early stages of the project). Chittenden commented that this would help to strengthen and perpetuate the visual tapestry of meadows framed by trees, envisaged by Baker.

Mount Pleasant
Although the complex of buildings is occupied by SANParks management personnel, there might be the opportunity of including visitor facilities – such as a small conference venue, interpretive facilities and parking as a departure point for game drives. Possible low-key overnight accommodation for hikers in the vicinity could be investigated. The terraces above Mount Pleasant should be utilised for an indigenous plant nursery and medicinal plant garden with the input of traditional healers and harvesters. This partnership project for which sponsorship is being sought has advanced beyond planning stage (see page 35 of UGF Sep/Oct issue) and it is hoped that the growing of medicinal plants will help prevent their removal from the wild.

Chittenden, speaking generally about concession opportunities in the CPNP as a whole, expressed the opinion that such interventions, as long as they are appropriate, sustainable and of low impact, could be so successful that they would potentially provide extra income for the CPNP which could be spent on projects needing financial support, such as providing funding for the City for conservation projects on the Cape Flats, including Wolfgat Nature Reserve – these funds could be extended to projects further afield across the province and even be utilised nationally. He called this looking for the "Golden Goose" and said that each concession opportunity should be optimised for the sake of the City and the nation as a whole.

"Cape Town needs to work harder at becoming a world class city. We have to be creative and bold in our approach to be able to compete with other international cities, and that means providing something more than just portaloos on the crest of Signal Hill, for tourists and local visitors alike," was Chittenden’s patently direct concluding comment.