Project Outcomes

While work on this project produced a design and implementation plan for the re-envisioned park, a much more important outcome emerged: community momentum. When our team interviewed community members to gain insight into the state of the park we began something that would lead to members of the community coming together to look after the future plans of the park. Taking a day to clean up the park, removing the glass, trash, and other waste with our co-researchers showed the community that there was indeed commitment to make the park a better place.

The next step, a fun day while simple in concept yielded even greater results. Giving the children of the community a chance to engage in free play in a clean park while some of us painted benches and trash bins showed the biggest turn out of people in the park we had seen. It was a step towards revitalizing the park by showing that it can be a place for children to play and have fun.

As the WPI team’s time began to come to a close in Cape Town a group of community members stepped up to carry the torch onwards. With some correspondence to the Parks Department through our team, this group of dedicated community members planned and executed a planting day as the first step towards the final landscaping plans of the park. The excitement of this group to improve their community through the park redevelopment is an inspiring sight and has already begun to rally others to the cause.

Below is a listing of the outcomes of this project with brief descriptions of each. The clean up day, fun day, and planting day have links to some of our scenes which further detail how those days unfolded. The Final Park design with implementation plan can also be seen here.

Community Survey Summary

Work began in Maitland Garden Village with a survey to gauge the community’s feelings about the park and how they felt the park could be improved. The information from the survey, including the common concerns or suggestions, have been summarized.

Community Survey Summary [PDF, 155 KB]

Clean Up Day

The co-researchers took initiative with us to make the park a cleaner, safer place. Armed with a few rakes, trash bags, and gloves we picked up trash, glass, and pulled back some overgrown grass to make a visible difference in the look of the park. To see a more detailed look at our clean up day take a look at our scene.

Fun Day

A theme of our project from the very start has been to incorporate fun into the redevelopment process. A small physical difference of painting some benches and trash bins coupled with activities for children to play in the park led to a day with more activity in the park than we had yet seen. To see how our team and our co-researchers worked together to make this day a success, take a look at our scene.

Planting Day

In the final weeks of our project a steering committee formed to take over the reins of the project. With the help of our team, the steering committee gathered a group of community members to plant some hardy cactus like plants as a first step towards creating more planting beds. To see some pictures and more information about how the day went check out our scene.

Park Design

Together with several groups of co-researchers and our liaison with the Parks Department, Jude a design emerged which we brought to the community to get input for changes before a final design is submitted.

See a detailed look at the final Perseverance Park Design Plan [PDF, 4.25 MB].

Phasing Plan

The phasing plan consists of various park elements, such as the barrier, seating, landscape, and equipment for both youth and kiddie areas of Perseverance Park. The plan spans over a period of three financial years, 2013-2016.

To see a detailed schedule of the implementation of the park design take a look at our Phasing Plan [PDF, 33 KB].

Catalogue

This document is meant to serve as an aid in park design. The various park elements are broken down by category such as shade, seating, plants, play equipment, and pathways to name a few. The items in this catalogue are from the greater Cape Town area and reflect the kind of equipment and park design styles of the area. Not all of the items included here will suite any given park or area. The needs of the community the park is situated in as well as the resources available to that community are key factors that will dictate what elements are appropriate to implement.

Park Design: Concepts and Illustrations [PDF, 2.25 MB]