Estate Living Magazine Design for living - Issue 42 June 2019 | Page 4
EA
THE
FOUNDER/CEO
Jaimé-Lee Gardner
[email protected]
COO/PUBLISHER
Louise Martin
[email protected]
GROUP SALES DIRECTOR
Michele Jones
EDITOR
Jennifer Stern
GOLF EDITOR
John Cockayne
SENIOR SUBEDITOR
Thea Grobbelaar
CREATIVE
Peter Batistich
AMBASSADORS
Jenelle Oosthuizen
Shamiela Roubain
CONTRIBUTORS
Helen Grange
Francois Schoeman
Great lifestyles don’t just happen – they have
to be planned, designed. And that involves
far more than deciding what colour curtains
to hang, or where to put the couch. Designing
for living is so much more: deciding where and
how to live, and thinking creatively about some
of the everyday decisions that can – if we’re not
careful – become dull, routine habits. rolling blackouts and water restrictions have
finally brought home to us that we really do
need to rethink how we live, we also don’t want
to decrease our quality of life. So we need to
think creatively and out of the box. Lawns, for
instance. Do you really want a lawn, or do you
want to change the way you think about private
open space, and contribute to saving water?
So it’s important that developers, managers,
HOAs, bodies corporate and even individual
residents approach estate living creatively –
with an open mind, and a little outside-the-box
thinking. And, if you still doubt the effect of global
climate change, look at what happened not far
from us – the city of Beira has sunk out of the
headlines through a process of disaster fatigue,
but that doesn’t change the fact that, without
a great deal of concerted effort, it may well be
the first city in the world to be wiped off the
map by climate change.
As always, we bring you some great estates
– including the fabulous Monaghan Farms,
that offers the best of urban and rural living –
and, thinking outside the box a little, we’ve
explored one of South Africa’s most underrated
provinces: the Eastern Cape. And, wow, there
is so much there. No-one can claim the credit
for the province’s incredible natural attractions,
but many municipalities – like Nelson Mandela
Bay Municipality (PE) – and estates have used
awesome design principles to make life easier
and, yes, more beautiful for residents and
visitors alike. But there’s more to consciously
designing for living than great buildings,
stunning urban art, and fabulous facilities.
Tessa Buhrmann
Martin Hatchuel
Brendan Dale
Mark van Dijk
Natalia Rosa
Chantal Lailvaux
Channing Arndt
Claudia Ringler
Helen Swingler
Robyn Walker
How we invest also impacts how we live. And,
in the spirit of ubuntu, and because, well,
that’s just the way it is, how our neighbours
live affects how we live. So we’ve explored
the benefits of investing in affordable housing
– the social and security ones are obvious,
so we’ve concentrated on the financial ones
because there seems to be some doubts and
some debate there. And, while the realities of
Some of the latest technological achievements
can contribute towards actively creating the
lives and lifestyles we desire. Take, for example,
the superbly brilliant concept of making bricks
out of urine and sand, with fertiliser as a by-
product – all out of a resource we usually just
flush away. But some technological innovations
are not quite so win-win. Facial recognition,
for example, can positively impact quality of
life by making estates more secure. Or – and,
yes, let’s be open-minded here – it can possibly
impact negatively by seriously compromising
residents’ privacy. There’s no easy answer to
this one, and that’s what consciously designing
one’s life is all about – carefully considering
all the objectives with an open mind, and
realistically acknowledging the consequences
of our choices. And, more importantly, realising
that – at every turn – we do have a choice.
ESTATE-LIVING.CO.ZA
Danielle Biggar
JJ Currie
FRONT COVER
Park Central
parkcentral.co.za
COPYRIGHT 2019: Golden Acer (Pty) Ltd t/a Estate Living.
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