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List of Projects

PIM, Joane

Born: 1904 02 03
Died: 1974 11 27

Landscape Architect


Was a founder member of the Institute of Landscape Architects of South Africa in 1962.

A landscape architect. L.I.L.A. (U.K.) F.I.L.A (Southern Africa).

PIM wrote a book titled "Beauty is Necessary - Preservation or Creation of the Landscape"; published by Purnell in 1971; foreword by Harry Oppenheimer.

The text of Pim's book includes her interesting and original theories, in the eight chapters, titled:

  1. Beauty is Necessary
  2. South Africa: Where are we going?
  3. Partnership in Planning: 1
  4. Partnership in Planning: 2
  5. The missing link - Landscape Architecture
  6. Beauty pays dividends
  7. The farmer and the landscape
  8. A desert landscape

The University of the Witwatersrand Historical Papers archives has various collections of photographs and documents about Joane PIM and her father Howard Pim. Click here to view.

[William MARTINSON, May 2010]

LILA (UK), FILA (Southern Africa)

Joane PIM was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is of Irish/English descent. After training as a draughtsman in an architect's office and studying with a professional horticulturist she became a pupil of Brenda Colvin, P.P.I.L.A., in Britain for a period.

In 1953 Joane PIM qualified as a licentiate member of the Institute of Landscape Architects (UK) and since then has been consultant to the Anglo American Corporation in South Africa. In this capacity she was entrusted with the landscape and garden planning of an area of virtual desert 24 miles (62 km2) square, the surroundings of five gold-mines and the landscaping of a town designed to accommodate 30 000. This appointment proved the forerunner of many others including 120 for private clients and more than 100 for companies and local authorities not only in South Africa but in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Zambia as well. Her travel by air and road averaged 48 000 miles (77 000 km) per annum and schemes had been planned for six different climates.

Part-time lecturer at the Universities of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and Cape Town. Joane PIM has addressed the Institute of Civil Engineers, and also Farmers' Day at the Bien Donné Farm, Groot Drakenstein, sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. She was guest lecturer at the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Congress in Zurich in 1956, when two exhibits entered were both chosen for exhibition in Europe and North America and she lectured again to the IFLA Congress in Haifa, Israel, in 1962. She wrote a number of articles which had been published in South Africa and also in the Journal of the American Society, Landscape Architecture.

Founder and several times President of the Institute of Landscape Architecture of Southern Africa (ILASA), Joane PIM is also the founder and Chairman of the South African Association of Youth Clubs. She has planned and maintained the courses for the Rand Hunt Club Drag for many years and laid out the courses for the Hunter Trials, an annual event. Her hobbies were horses, dogs and photography.

List of projects

With photographs
With notes

House Frankel - Beechwood: n.d.. Johannesburg, Gauteng - Landscape Architect
House FV Rees: Etunzini: 1928. Parktown, Johannesburg, Gauteng - Landscape Architect
Johannesburg Country Club, Landscaping Proposal: 1973. Johannesburg, Gauteng - Architect

Books by PIM

Pim, Joane. 1971. Beauty is necessary : preservation or creation of the landscape. Cape Town: Purnell

Books citing PIM

Wiesmeyer, Esmé Moseley; Widdas, Pat (Editor). 2007. Joane Pim : South Africa's landscape pioneer. Pinegowrie: The Horticultural Society. pp All