Timber iQ August - September 2017 // Issue: 33 | Page 18

PROJECTS
The square posts at the Sitari Country Estate.
Square peg in a round hole...
While round posts for play structures are the norm on playgrounds,
Sitari Country Estate opted for square posts, to give the estate
an upmarket look. Graham Groenewald of Tuff Playstructures
welcomed the challenge and delivered posts fit for luxury.
By Ntsako Khosa | All images courtesy of Tuff Playstructures
S
itari Country Estate is an award winning epoch-making
residential development situated in Cape Town.
Launched in 2014, the estate offers over 3 000
residential luxury and premium apartments, village homes
and country homes complete with an exclusive Curro School
and shopping centre a short distance away.
THE BIRTH OF SQUARE POSTS
In 2013, Tuff Playstructures was approached by project
landscape architects of Sitari Country Estate, cndv Landscape
Architects, to investigate the possibility of adapting standard
play structures to use square posts instead of round, and to
omit the use of tyres. “The landscape architects were looking
for something more upmarket than the traditional cylindrical
poles,” says Groenewald.
16 AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2017 //
Once the designs had been agreed on, Groenewald tried to
find suitable square timber to use in place of the traditional
cylindrical poles. “It soon became apparent that it was not
going to be a simple exercise to find the required timber,
particularly 100mm x 100mm to give the structure the
required strength for a commercial environment and which
could be treated to level H4 for an in-ground application. The
relatively small volume of poles required meant that
traditional saw mills were just not interested,” he says.
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT
Groenewald’s research proved difficult as he came across
firms that had the rectangular timber but a lower treatment
level of H3. “The quality of this treatment would not
withstand conditions, particularly for play structures which