02/09/2026
Ten luxury homes. One challenge: steep, heavily contoured ground in Bishopscourt, Western Cape, South Africa.
For the Exeter Estate development by KingsHill Group, The Keep and New Land Developments, raised building platforms were needed to carve out space for tennis courts, lap pools, steam rooms, wine cellars and multi-car garages on each 650 to 800 m² erf.
The solution was Terraforce Retaining Walls® L12 blocks in charcoal, round face out, stacked in three 2m terraces at 70-degree angles. The round face left room for topsoil, allowing ten indigenous ground creeper species to be planted along the walls by Alan Dawson Gardens.
Blocks were supplied by Terraforce® licensed manufacturer Klapmuts Concrete / Cape Retaining Systems. A total of 30 000 L12 blocks were installed on site by Decorton Retaining Systems, their first project using the L12 in charcoal with a round face finish.
Subsoil and sand drainage layers run behind every cut embankment, with the bottom third of each wall concrete-filled and the larger walls geogrid reinforced, as specified by consulting engineer Dennis Belter of Gadomski Consulting Engineers.
