Oranjezicht III

Architect: Shawn Mahoney

Garden Designer: Franschesca Watson

This award winning wetlandPOOL was built between two large rocks high up on a mountain.

The pool is nearly 4m deep so that one can safely jump off the high rock next to the pool and not hit the bottom. The wetland starts inside the pool and then steps up between the two rocks with brutalist off-shutter concrete walls that are overscaled and look like dam walls, holding back the wetlands and the mountain. The entrance walkway to the property runs along the top of the wetlands, and visitors look down into the pool.

The pool was technically very difficualt to build as it straddles two natural boulders. The water line was chiseled out of the existing rock to create the shadow along the water line, and to allow the gunite structure to disappear below the water line.

While sitting next to the pool or while swimming, the city vanishes from sight and one finds oneself in a natural crevasse, surrounded by natural rock and garden with a view of Unesco World Heritage Site Table Mountain.