Leading Architecture & Design, PARC
Parc at Gold Coast Estate, Sibaya Coastal precinct
Gold Coast Estate, Sibaya Coastal Precinct, Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Parc is a residential development comprising 40 duplex type homes arranged around an open park. A contemporary response with the living areas on the ground floor and bedrooms above. The living areas incorporate floor to ceiling and wall to wall openings. This allows for a great flow to the patios & plenty of natural light and ventilation. The bedrooms on the upper floor are expressed as a combination of punctured boxes, walls, and screens. These allow for various levels of privacy depending on the location and orientation of these rooms.
COA recently completed the next phase of the estate, a residential development made up of 40 duplex-type homes arranged around an open park. In keeping with the estate’s emphasis on a healthy, active outdoor lifestyle and focus on family life, the residential units have been designed to engage with and activate the shared space of the park, catalysing the sense of community that develops from communal outdoor space and casual social interactions.
Key “anchor” facilities – the clubhouse on one side and the sports facility on the other – have been placed on either end of the central park, thus activating the path between the two. These facilities offer limited parking, which also encourages residents to walk rather than drive. The residential units are arranged in such a way that they all have gates that directly access the green belt, further encouraging foot traffic and activating the park.
One key departure from the standard approach to units in residential estates was the decision to separate the garages from the units. This created several beneficial consequences.
Firstly, by positioning the garages beneath the estate road, COA freed up considerable space for the park. It also created an opportunity to introduce landscaping around the entrances of the units, creating a richer, more varied, and textured experience of the landscape design of the driveway, and minimising the hard surfaces. Thirdly, it made it possible to open the north-facing side of the units to receive abundant northern light, not to mention making cross-ventilation possible for the natural cooling of the interiors.
The architects introduced extensive planting into the landscaping and in features such as the chamfered cantilever over the garages – not only screening the units from passing cars to enhance privacy, but also creating a pleasing middle ground for their northernly outlook.
The individual units are a contemporary take on the kind of stylistically and climatically appropriate tropical modernism distinctive of the region. COA designed custom-made precast breezeblocks to make eye-catching floating screens that impart a strong identity and architectural character to the estate.
The combination of these screens with off-shutter concrete, contemporary black brick and plastered masonry creates a subtle but rich textural variation, which articulates the functions of the various parts of each unit according to the modernist dictum that form follows function. (It also expresses the distinct identity of each unit as a unique “home” within a harmonious aesthetic approach.)
In general, the living areas are located on the ground floor and bedrooms above. The living areas incorporate floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall openings that encourage an indoor-outdoor lifestyle with seamless access to patios. The bedrooms on the upper floor are expressed as a combination of punctured boxes, walls, and screens, which allow for various levels of privacy, depending on the location and orientation of these rooms.
This, together with the clever arrangement of units – some of them mirroring each other so that their garden space is maximized without necessitating high walls – creates a balance of privacy and community, and a pleasing relationship between private and shared space within the estate that offers the best of both worlds.
