T
It was five years ago that Stark Studios moved
to Randburg’s Fontainebleau. It’s an ideal
location for television-recording studios, being
close to MNet and the SABC. ‘We wanted
both the new building and its surrounds to be
conducive to creativity and the garden allowed
us to think out of the box in quite a dramatic
way,’ says co-founder Elsje Stark.
Elsje commissioned landscape architect
Patrick Watson to mastermind a modern,
dramatic space that would complement the
architecture. ‘TV is an intense industry with
extremely long hours,’ Elsje says. ‘I pictured
a place where people could clear their heads;
somewhere beautiful to meander through
and feel renewed.’HE TRANSFORMATION
COULD SCARCELY BE
MORE EXTRAORDINARY.
The site already had masses of strelitzias
and a series of trees, including a tall palm.
‘Both of these are glamorous, Hollywood
type plants,’ says Patrick. ‘We’re talking
movies so it made sense to keep them and go
a little LA.’ Patrick’s vision included a series
of high-impact cubist sculptures that lend
the impression of shifting stages and frames
as you move around them. In a triumph of
recycling, debris from the site’s demolished
houses and newly excavated car park was
assimilated into the pyramidal shapes.
‘As a concept I suppose it has its roots in
land art, though that tends to be far more
minimalist,’ Patrick says. ‘We’d worked with
berms in natural gardens before but neverpyramids of this size and precision. It’s
about simple geometry. The whole idea was
to create a sense of theatre and surprise.’
It’s a daring design to be sure, even for
someone known for his sense of adventure.
It’s a good thing, then, that Elsje shares this
trait. ‘You can’t go more radical than your
client and Elsje accepted that this was a
radical garden.’
Actually implementing it all was hardly
simple. In a highly labour-intensive
process, the pyramids were handmade
by Rekopane Landscapes. ‘It looks
pretty instant but it took eight months
to complete,’ says Patrick. ‘The garden is
relatively high maintenance – it’s definitely
exotic. If you go all veld grass or fynbos you
won’t achieve the same impact.’ Patrick did
plant several acacias though – his reference
to Southern Africa in a garden that’s very
much Beverly Hills.
Texture holds sway throughout and
Patrick chose succulents for many of theHOUSEANDLEISURE.CO.ZA HL OCTOBER 2015 117LEISURE GARDEN
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