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(Below): One of the retaining wall benches dressed with Saxon Split Cladding and topped with Kent Random Edge paving. and some of the stairs dressed with Revelstone’s Saxon Split Cladding and paved with Kent Random Edge paving. (Photographer: David Beer)
Cladding and flagstone paving, manufactured by CMA member Revelstone, has played a crucial role in the redesign and revamp of the garden at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre. The revamp was undertaken to prepare an outdoor venue for the Rolex Arts Weekend, one of the world’s most important and prestigious international arts events, part of which was staged at the Baxter on 7 and 8 February 2020. Project architect Julius Burmeister van der Merwe of Masterpiece Architects says that prior to the revamp, the garden consisted largely of grassed slopes fringed w it h f lowerbeds. “ T he Rolex event required level spaces where furniture could be accommodated and where people could gather and mingle. Timber decking had initially been mooted, but on closer analysis, this solution proved impractical. As an alternative, I proposed levelling the slopes into a series of stepped terraces which would not only provide a venue for the Rolex event, but also serve as a userfriendly outdoor sanctuary for students and theatre-goers, as well as for staging subsequent events. “This approach required extensive
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PRECAST | ISSUE ONE | 2021
Revelstone products used in
BAXTER THEATRE GARDEN UPGRADE earthworks and an upgrading of the garden. In addition to four level terraces, a retaining wall was built to shore up t he cut face of t he ensuing ver t ica l embankment below what remained of the upper-slope section. We wanted to use natural rock for dressing the retaining wall and for the paving, but we had neither the budget nor the time to quarry natural rock. Instead, I approached Revelstone, whose cast-stone concrete
