More than meets the eye : unveiling the hidden landscape of the Union Buildings in a counter-monumental, public park

Abstract

Landscape Transformation On the southern slope of Meintjieskop lies a Renaissance garden, a remnant of the past at the foot of what is described by SA History Online (2011) as a South African architectural masterpiece – the Union Buildings. These terraced gardens are arguably one of the most important designed heritage landscapes in South Africa. The site, designed by Sir Herbert Baker in collaboration with Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gordon Leith was constructed between 1910-1913, as a memorial to reconciliation, and a national icon of the custodianship of collective good governance (Bakker 2003). It was envisioned to be a grand, ordered, and symmetrical landscape of formalistic terraced gardens. Between 1913-1919 during the construction of the gardens, Baker’s original vision was adapted in his absence and more than half of the site which was intended to be formal parterres ended up as a large unsustainable lawn that has been appropriated as an informal public park. Over the past 26 years of democracy, there have been numerous calls for change at the Union Buildings, ranging between options of preserving it to changing its name or the removal of the monuments and sculptures, even as far as proposals of building a completely new seat of government (Mabin 2019:20-23). For this reason, the Union Buildings is the ideal testing ground for the much-debated heritage transformation that is proposed by the South African government (Mthethwa 2015 & Dhlamini 2020).

The aim of the dissertation is to create a landscape design proposal for the Union Buildings site that re-imagines the site as a living democratic monument, whilst reintroducing the public to naturalistic environments by establishing natural plants and planting communities from the region as a means to create place identity unique to Meintjieskop and the Daspoortrand. A successful public park typology is established on the site, to allow for contemporary uses whilst representing a number of forgotten narratives integral to the site’s identity.

Landscape architecture is thus presented as a medium for heritage transformation through which the project will investigate the potential of landscape architecture to restore and conserve a heritage site as a living monument used every day by city dwellers & residents. Furthermore, the designer aims to create an inviting site that will respect the site’s history, whilst celebrating its regional environment and create an all-inclusive public space that will prevent the call for further heritage transformation.