Room With A View

Garden designer Martine de la Harpe has created a high-profile, green courtyard that is as dappled and tranquil as it is functional.

- Heidi Bertish

Once the remnants of a neglected potager garden made way for the extension of a newly built wing of guest suites, the remaining outdoor space, now enclosed on four sides, needed definition and detailing. ‘Being flanked on all sides by rooms that overlooked and opened onto it meant that the space had to allow access and traversing from all directions,’ says garden designer Martine de la Harpe. The challenge was to facilitate access while creating the feeling of a semi-private, green enclave for this Johannesburg-based family and their friends.

Easy movement from one side of the courtyard to the other was as essential as the need to green and soften hard surfaces. Existing cobbled paving was re-laid to create a network of walkways that divided the space into hard and soft landscaping. ‘The paving not only provided the geometry for the new design but added a graceful, time-worn look to the overall aesthetic,’ says Martine. Main access points and sightlines from within the house guided the positioning of focal hot-spots, statement pots, a favorite sculpture by mathematician-turned artist, Chonat Getz, and a single mature Magnolia grandiflora, rescued during the build.