David Hicks at Riversfield Farm – the closing of a chapter

Abstract

David Hicks, internationally renowned British interior designer, author and garden designer, designed only three gardens in South Africa of which Riversfield Farm in the KZN Midlands was his last and uncompleted by the time of his death in 1998. In 2005 the owners, with the assistance of prominent South African landscaper Jan Blok, commenced with the construction of the potager at Riversfield Farm; the only unbuilt part of Hicks’s design. In the article the interpretation of the Hicks sketch plan design by South African landscaper Jan Blok, construction constraints and the completed project are described and illustrated. This project, which can be considered significant in the South African landscape architecture context, is discussed from the perspective of Hicks’s own published design approach.

David Hicks, internasionaal erkende Britse binne-ontwerper, skrywer en tuinontwerper het slegs drie tuine in Suid-Afrika ontwerp, waarvan Riversfield Farm in die KwaZulu-Natalse Middellande sy laaste en onvoltooide projek was ten tye van sy afsterwe in 1998. In 2005 het die eienaars, met die hulp van bekroonde Suid-Afrikaanse landskappeerder Jan Blok, begin met die konstruksie van die potager (kombuistuin) by Riversfield Farm, die enigste onvoltooide deel van Hicks se ontwerp. In die artikel word die interpretasie van Hicks se ontwerp, konstruksiebeperkings, en die voltooide projek beskryf en illustreer. Hierdie projek, wat beskou kan word as van beduidende belang in die Suid-Afrikaanse landskapargitektuurkonteks, word bespreek uit die perspektief van Hicks se eie gepubliseerde ontwerpbenadering.