A Sense of Place

A meeting place between arid interior and watered coastal region, the land mediates between mountain and plain, wild and cultivated, inner and outer, sacred and profane, with a fierce and gentle insistence.

The Towerland Wilderness is a space for encouraging wholeness and gaining insight into living process , for countering distraction and fragmentation, for the renewal of souls and impulses.

The land lends itself to a sense of intimacy with a world filled with life and growth and diversity; with colour and texture; seasonal and ecological rhythms of growth and decay; phases of development; and always, the experience of wholeness and living process, of abundant life and the detail of interdependence between plant and animal, between ourselves and nature. (Wilderness)

This wilderness area is a centre of bio-diversity, where three biological ‘hotspots’ - amongst 32 listed worldwide by the Rio Summit of 1992 as essential to maintain for the health of the planet - come together, namely: Cape Floral Kingdom, Succulent Karoo and Subtropical Thicket. It is a high priority area for conservation, and a place of extravagant and roughly gentle natural beauty. (Biodiversity and Conservation)

The architectural designs, and methods and materials used, enable buildings and spaces to embrace and nestle into their surrounding context. The overriding considerations are ecological, natural, simple, organic, artisanal and intimate, as well as stimulating and creative. (Architecture)

Ultimately, appreciation can only come through feel and experience. Though photographs can never substitute, they can serve as a first introduction. (Pictures)