Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
An exciting glimpse into what could be in store
Sites close to public transport, schools and the city centre
developable pocket of land to the north of New Market Street. The south of New Market Street is characterised by multi- storey mixed- use development,” Rawoot says, adding there are public primary and high schools within a 2km radius accessible via public transport.
This site is a long linear site that runs parallel to the railway line. The design proposal creates a street edge with building façades facing New Market Street and the inner linear, tree-lined courtyard.
Building heights range from eight storeys along New Market Street and five storeys along the railway line.
These sites are adjacent to one another, separated by Victoria Walk, so Rawoot says the design proposal for both is integrated into one.
“The Woodstock Hospital site is currently an under utilised 1.8ha site within a finegrained, single and doublestorey residential area, with more dense and mixed uses along Victoria Road. The site
is adjacent to the Woodstock Hospital Park, creating opportunities for integration.
“The site is on an entire city block and the neighbouring land uses are residential dwellings, the park and Mountain Road Primary. The site is currently zoned General Residential 4.
It is a three-minute walk from Victoria Road, which offers public transport and social amenities. Its closest MyCiTi bus station is a
10- minute walk. There are public high schools nearby on public transport routes. The minimum number of social housing units provided on this site is 700.
Design Proposal
Rawoot’s design proposal aims to integrate the hospital site directly into the public park across Victoria Walk using raised paving to give priority to the pedestrian.
“The concept is to create a mixed-use development, inte- grating market with social and gap residential units and a mix of functions such as commercial and retail space. The site will retain a public park function.
The average height of buildings in each complex ranges from four to eight storeys, where appropriate, to create density on well-located land close to social amenities that still conforms to the fine grained historic nature of Woodstock.
“Vehicular access is minimised.”
This 3.3ha site is in Salt River, about 100m from Victoria Road and close to Groote Schuur Hospital. It is currently a vacant field surrounded by a mixture of land uses, including an upholstery factory, student residences and a self-storage facility. The southern edge is bound by the N2.
“The site is close to Victoria Road, which is catered to by taxi, bus and MyCiti. It is currently zoned Public Open Space, Municipal Purposes and Community Facility and will have to be appropriately rezoned for development.”
Pickwick is within walking distance of Groote Schuur Hospital, Blackpool soccer club, Shelley Street Park, Queens Park and Rochester Road park. The nearest primary school is Cecil Road, and the nearest high school is Queen’s Park.
“The design proposal intends to create four-perimeter developments, each framing its own semi-private courtyard linked via pedestrian walkways. The design creates an active façade onto Pickwick Road,” Rawoot says.
“The coarse grained built fabric and neighbouring site functions enables the Pickwick site to be well suited to high rise development.”
The ground floor accommodates limited area for parking, with priority given to pedestrians and encouraging use of public transport options.
Rawoot’s designs were shared with Future Cape Town at www.futurecapetown. com as part of its 80:20 series which explores the potential for mixed- income housing development models in cities.