Over centuries, Cape Town's coastline has undergone dramatic transformation. In the mid-1960s, the City of Cape Town reclaimed the Woodstock beach to support its expansion development plans. Today, Woodstock is one of Cape Town’s most exciting creative hubs but the formerly vibrant beach no longer exists.

In 2017, property developer Blok invited us to participate in a competition for urban design services for the Woodstock Precinct. We responded to the challenge with our vision for the Woodstock Beach Precinct Urban Design Framework.

Blok had a vision for a unique, vibrant, high-density neighbourhood without owning all the properties or controlling the overall landscape. A key consideration was how to successfully establish a long-lasting mixed-use urban node within Cape Town that incorporated Blok’s philosophy for creating dynamic neighbourhoods.The response also needed to maximise returns for developers involved in the precinct’s development.

Our urban design team approaches their methodology for creating urban development frameworks based on robust research, demonstrable viability and feasibility, delivered in collaboration with the relevant public, private and local stakeholders. Their approach to this project was no different.

The proposal outlined clearly defined stages that start by opening up possibilities and retaining the potential to continually explore new options. These stages include the development of a framework plan, precinct plan, planning submission, statutory approvals package, design guidelines, public realm design and design review. As these stages progress they provide increasing certainty of development outcomes following an iterative rather than linear process.

To address the brief and enable more economic opportunities to emerge organically, we formulated a masterplan that reinforces Woodstock's status as a hub for retail and culture while reconnecting workshops and studios and reimagining the residential lifestyle. The masterplan supports the colourful and unique character of Albert Road by enlivening it with public spaces and by consolidating bike routes and public transport.

While Albert Road buzzes with activity, we envisaged Bromwell Street as the ‘quieter cousin’, a safe neighbourhood street that feels like a local village with a mix of activities, pocket parks, planters, corner cafes and workshops. The masterplan reconnects Bromwell Street to a healthy, animated neighbourhood corridor.

We brought Woodstock Beach back in the form of a reimagined rail-side promenade characterised by a novelty strip of parks and pop-ups that re-centres Woodstock on the Cape Town light-leisure map.