Feature: Indwe Park

Opening Braam to the touch

When Indwe Park, Wits’ new neighbour in Braamfontein, opens later this year it will be a nod to healing and connection for everyone after two and a half years of COVID-19.

BY UFRIEDA HO

Edmund Batley in front of the park's porte-cochere

Images: Brett Eloff

As corporate spaces go, there aren’t many where you’re invited to take off your shoes. But Indwe Park’s earthing mound bubbles up as a lawn-covered, unambiguous “yes” to ditching your footwear and letting the grass and earth get between your toes.

For architect and Witsie Edmund Batley (BArch 1994) of Batley Partners International Architecture and Design, the project to reimagine the unused concrete parking spaces between Liberty Group’s main building on Ameshoff Street and the heritage SA Breweries building is very special and has generated exceptional interest.

It’s not difficult to understand why. What Batley and his collaborators have achieved is a gentle wish of hope and mindful regeneration embodied in a multiuse, urban green lung. The park spans about four hectares and take its name from the national bird, the blue crane, or indwe in isiXhosa.

“We started on this project before COVID-19, and coming out of the worst of the pandemic we realised we needed to change some of our plans because people want to touch things, to feel things and to be connected again to being outdoors,” says Batley. He remembers how hard lockdown kept people from even standing outside their homes.

The park is Wits’ direct neighbour across the road. But you would never have known what was going on there in the past few months – unless you’d had a view from an upper floor at University Corner. Batley remembers that even when he was a student the space was a bit of a mystery.

“I remember being on Wits breakfast runs when I was a student and you’d pass that door in the wall along Jan Smuts Avenue, but that was about it,” he says of the nondescript boundary wall of the property.

Now, though, Batley’s designs open up the park to the street on both Jan Smuts Avenue and Ameshoff Street and it’s anything but nondescript. The earthing mound (a place to connect with the energy of the ground) is a dominant feature that gives a view of the edge of Wits, the Clive van den Bergh eland sculpture and down to the Nelson Mandela Bridge. There’s also a “reflexology” walkway (with a textured surface), medicinal plant gardens and natural pools that are mini ecosystems requiring little maintenance.

The park has incorporated some of the existing trees, including a 60-year-old eucalyptus, and there is a mix of indigenous plants, mostly grasses, and exotics. There are also lawn, seating and concourse areas.

“We retained and revamped the old service lifts from basement parking lots so that people can exit the lifts in the park,” says Batley.

Indwe Park will have sculptures and installations that add to the public art heritage of the city. The works will include a 6m mosaic designed by the late artist and community art activist Andrew Lindsay. There will also be installations by Rirhandzu Makhubele, Zanele Montle, Grace Mokalapa, Kagiso “Pat” Mautloa, Hannelie Coetzee (ADipFA 1998) and James Delaney. Delaney is credited for bringing The Wilds in Houghton back to life and driving public ownership of the once neglected park.

Other collaborators include Patrick Watson for indigenous gardening; Paul Pamboukian for lighting; art facilitation company Moja Nation; sustainability consultant and co-founder of PaperThinkLAB Thulani Kuzwayo and Pawel Gradowski for his knowledge of water features.

Batley says the water features have been made “idiot proof ” and were designed to reduce water and energy usage. “We decided to incorporate water features because of the impact on wellness and healing that comes with seeing flowing water and the sound of running water. It also removes some of the noise from the city and the traffic.”

The park’s porte-cochère is another striking feature. It gives a sense of space and movement to the corporate foyer. It feels urban and modern but is also open and leads back to the park area. The materials used are a technology of thin copolymer films that create air-filled cushions – lightweight, durable and cost effective, regulating temperature and giving effective coverage.

Batley has designed the park to support multiple uses and adapt in different directions in the future. It has spaces for corporate functions and for pop-up events where food trucks or performances can be hosted. The designer is already thinking about coffee shop spaces and a climbing wall. There are also plans to help light up The Eland and to coax Wits to reimagine the blank walls of University Corner.

For Batley the triumph of Indwe Park lies in Liberty Group deciding that the park will be opened to the general public and will open at night too. He says property management is one of Liberty’s business strengths.

“People do need to feel confident that they are safe but we also need to find ways to bring life back into the city without making people feel policed,” he says.

Wins for Braamfontein matter to him because he lived in the suburb as a student in the late 1980s. He has watched Braam through the decades work hard to be hum and heartbeat in a part of Joburg that’s had some hard knocks – it deserves a break.

The park stands ready as the “what next” for Braamfontein. It challenges design and architectural limits while celebrating strategic collaboration, greener options and bringing down barriers between “us and them”. It’s a leap of faith for sure.

Images: Brett Eloff