CAST-STONE COBBLES COMPLEMENT NEW CENTURY CITY PARKADE

Clad with an attractive per forated aluminium screen, P3 was built for the Rabie Property Group by main contractor WBHO. It was designed by Vivid Architects (project architect – Nic Cloete) and the project’s civil work was done by Neil Zaaiman Civils.

Landscape architect Alistair Turrell of Planning Partners designed the landscape installation for the pedestrian precinct in collaboration with Vivid Architects and the Jura Cobbles were laid by TJ Paving on a sub-base of 150mm G5 aggregate. Combining paving space with beds of indigenous foliage and trees, the paved precinct includes benches clipped onto the raised beds, making it a space for relaxation, rather than a mere thoroughfare.

A pedestrian precinct and garden courtyard which flank P3, a recently completed three-storey parkade adjacent to a Virgin Active gym at Century City, has been paved with Jura Cobbles manufactured by Cape-based caststone producer and CMA member Revelstone.

“We chose Jura Cobble because it’s a refined product with a very regular module,” says Turrell, “and its colour tones complement the dark brickwork of the garden walls and the perforated aluminium screens.

“This is a high-traffic pedestrian zone and the irregular composition of the planting zones in the courtyard lent itself to the herringbone pattern which was adopted for the layout of the cobbles. They exhibit no differentiation in direction,

nor extensive patterning which might have competed with the architecture.

“Moreover, we know that Jura Cobble is a durable product which has stood the test of time. We first used it 10 years ago at the Business Centre in Century City, where it still looks as good as new.” Revelstone’s Jura Cobble has also been used on several other upmarket projects, including the V&A Waterfront’s No 5 Silo project, where it lines an indoor walkway on the ground floor.