African Design Magazine ADM #35 November 2017 | Page 42

From the upper-level of Tongaat Hule
Developments' building on Umhlanga Rocks
Drive, the breathtaking view of the beautiful
Umhlanga Ridge can be clearly seen.
The thriving residential and commercial nucleus on
Umhlanga Ridge is a plan commonly thought of as South
Africa' new Sandton.
Not so long ago, this elegant and sublime commercial
powerhouse was a mere expansive cane field.
Now vastly different, it remains to say that the thriving Umhlanga Ridge defies the
typical highly sprawled and motorised cities of the past. Rather, the sense of
environmental connectedness and the contemporary architecture offers a seamless
integration with a pay homage to the landscape.
Director of GAPP Architects & Urban Designers, Erky Wood has been integral to
the special planning and urban design of the environment created here, highlights
the consideration that was given to the planning of the space, long before the first
buildings began to appear.
The first work on what was then the old uMhlanga Rocks Drive began in the mid-
1990's, with a major infrastructural upgrade, the implementation of turning circles
and Umhlanga Ridge's iconic Fever Tree boulevard.
Moving beyond this, extensive research and
inspiration came from developments in urban
spaces around the world, where the concept
of new urbanism gave rise to sustainable,
social integration and development that
focused on compact, integrated nodes where
people, as opposed to private car-based
transport were at the very core.
Drawing from these successful examples, the
designers were awarded the opportunity to
move forward on this greenfields palle e of
sugarcane, to consolidate on the strategic
foundations that were laid in the early 1990's.
Umhlanga Ridge New Town Centre
Michael Deighton, Managing Director Tongaat Hulett Developments
and Erky Wood, Director GAPP Architects, and Urban Designers, are
at the epicentre of a fascinating narrative of the urban
transformation and catalytic land conversion.
42 africandesignmagazine.com