In July 2021 the Global Panel of Formula e announced the inclusion of Cape Town on the motor racing calendar. The world class location around Cape Town Stadium with iconic Table Mountain as backdrop proved to be a spectacular success.
Previously designed for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Stadium and associated surrounding Urban Park located in Green Point was to be upgraded for the Formula e-Prix scheduled for February 2023.
OvP, as the original landscape architects, were appointed to prepare the design with technical inputs from the international Formula e team. Working in collaboration with a local consultant Civil Engineer, the project included retrofitting the street circuit into the existing urban infrastructure which had originally been prepared specifically for pedestrian priority in the Stadium Precinct also incorporating the adjoining road infrastructure around the urban park.
OvP prepared the landscape masterplan for heritage & planning approvals, followed by detail precinct plans, hard & soft landscape plans & irrigation co-ordination. Design considerations included road cambering and widening, pavement and road surfacing upgrading, coloured asphalt & special coloured surfacing, integration of the pit stop area into the Stadium forecourt area, tree and planting relocation, urban furniture, road safety barriers, fencing and new edge treatments.
This was a fast-track project funded by Formula e for the 6-month design phase and by the City of Cape Town for the 12-month implementation phase.
The legacy benefit of the project is difficult to ascertain. While certain surfacing improvements to the road infrastructure were successfully achieved, overall it could be claimed that this was at the expense of a certain loss of the landscape character associated to the original landscape design intent for the public pedestrian realm in the immediate precinct around the Stadium. While it is intended that Formula e is an annual event for a 5-year window, but after successfully hosting the first event, it remains unclear if or when the event will return.
Although every attempt was made to integrate the racing infrastructure with minimal visual impact, in the short term the racing infrastructure remains with no commitment to reinstate certain intrusive elements post event which remain subject to future planning initiatives.