Turning a neglected hundred year old garden around, whilst maintaining its character allowed for it to be re-purposed as a series of outdoor living spaces surrounding the main 1909 heritage home. The driveway was converted into a vegetable garden and the derelict pool area into a low maintenance eco-pool linked to a new covered patio space. Social interaction and outdoor living in previous dead areas of the garden were successfully created with privacy for the various tenants in mind.
The front garden and parking areas were conceived as a series of hedged spaces, with gravel pathways and a typical English style entrance garden in acknowledgement of the manor house’s historical architecture.
Converting your existing swimming pool into a sustainable natural pool makes sense on all levels.
Eco pools does not use any chemicals. It utilizes aquatic plants and a filtration system to clean the water as a mini ecosystem. The pool is composed of two separate but connecting areas; a swimming area and a regeneration area. The regeneration area is where the aquatic plants reside and clean the water. A filtration system capture large debris and circulate the water. The filtration system can also be run off of solar power to allow for an off-grid power saving option.
Daniel van der Merwe initiated, directed and co-ordinated the PPC imaginarium from its inception until its suspension in 2019 due to financial constraints. The PPC Imaginarium became firmly entrenched as the largest platform to support, mentor, profile and educate emerging young creative entrepreneurs towards job creation.
It was worldwide recognised as a unique outreach and brand capacitating project spanning across 6 creative disciplines, whilst branding and promoting the use of Portland cement. As such it has won several national awards in recognition of its wide impact.
Rosendal in the Eastern Free State has a high -altitude alpine climate. Drought cycles and extreme temperatures with up to minus 15 degrees C, snow, hail and frost makes this a difficult area for sustainable landscaping. The design approach was to first create a protected micro climate by using fencing covered with fast growing evergreen creepers, evergreen tree hedges and tree canopies to divide the site into protected enclosures. Low maintenance grassed meadows are interspersed with hardy evergreen accents and combined with endemic and indigenous drought resistant planting. Grey water is channeled into the herb and edible garden areas. Rainwater is channeled into a storage pond which also acts as a duck pond and reflective water feature. Ornamental planting is supplemented with medicinal, fruit bearing and crop planting to contribute towards a ‘living off the land’ sustainable landscaping approach.
