It is official: I thought so and one of the landscape architects who worked on the project says it: the Sunnyside swimming pool precinct is the most successful urban pocket park in Pretoria - a minute’s walk away from me.
The old Sunnyside swimming pool was demolished (along with rundown houses inhabited by squatters who drew Temple ov Psychick Youth signs on the walls) to make way for the impressive Department of Trade and Industry Sunnyside campus. The new Sunnyside swimming pool precinct was developed over 2003/2004 by the Tshwane municipality on what was an indifferent park and water feature, a leftover of houses demolished twenty years before.
Discussions with the community led to the development of a swimming pool and play area across the road that is intimate in feel, shielded from boundary roads by dense tree planting, an undulating wall and grassy hillocks.
Some smart things were done by the municipality’s landscaping architecture team consisting of Siegwalt Küsel, Michelle Wheeler and Jacques Hugo: firstly, the soil excavated during the swimming pool construction was used onsite to form these hillocks that would prevent children from running out into the street. Secondly, they decided to give a tree that had fallen into disuse for about 30 years another chance. >>