From Lockdown Garden to National Honour: Tim Steyn Named Landscape Designer of the Year
Tim Steyn has been named Landscape Designer of the Year at the Condé Nast House & Garden South Africa Designers of the Year Awards 2026. The award recognises more than two decades of work in South Africa and abroad.
Raised in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, Steyn grew up with green fingers and went on to establish Tim Steyn Landscaping in 2004. His work has since extended to projects in Africa, Europe and the United States.
For Brahman Hills, where he has become both a trusted creative partner and friend, the award is a particularly proud moment.
"Tim has been instrumental in helping us bring to life some of the biggest dreams we have dared to pursue," says Onwaba Gonyora, Director at Brahman Hills. "We are incredibly proud to have his hand and his eye shaping the landscape of Brahman Hills."
From a lockdown garden to international recognition
Steyn's relationship with Brahman Hills stretches back to the creation of the destination's Legacy Gardens during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Working alongside the Brahman Hills team, he transformed what had been an open Midlands landscape into a series of 26 distinct garden rooms, connected by winding walkways, water, sculpture and layered planting.
Speaking about his approach to the gardens, Steyn previously explained that each space had been designed for "maximum visual interest" while creating opportunities for people to "linger and stroll".
That attention to experience, rather than planting alone, has become an important part of the gardens' identity.
The Legacy Gardens went on to receive international recognition from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), being named the best overseas RHS Partner Garden in the world, a first for Africa. This placed Brahman Hills among a small group of gardens in Africa associated with the RHS Partner Garden programme.
Today, the partnership between Steyn and Brahman Hills is entering a new chapter.
A 22-hectare vision takes shape
Steyn is currently closely involved in the creation of the 22-hectare Serenity Garden, one of the most ambitious landscape projects undertaken at Brahman Hills.
Set within the Blue Crane Nature Reserve, the garden is being created as a contemporary interpretation of a labyrinth, with approximately six kilometres of paths unfolding through changing landscapes.
Visitors will move through waterfalls, streams, stone walls, woodland, seasonal planting and quiet spaces designed for pause and contemplation. Among its defining features are a Stone Labyrinth, built from approximately 1,200 m² of stonework; the Olive Garden; the Way of Water, with its 6m waterfall; the Meditation Mound; the African Art Museum; and a 300 m² underground botanical wonderland.
For Steyn, the intention behind the garden goes beyond its scale.
"It's part walking meditation, part contemplation and part strolling-style garden, with many different facets to unwind the mind and connect people to the present moment," he says.
The project combines extensive engineering and earthworks with detailed horticultural design. Hundreds of established trees are being incorporated into the landscape, alongside tens of thousands of shrubs, grasses, aloes, succulents and seasonal plants, along with additional new trees.
The result will be a garden designed not to reveal itself all at once, but to unfold slowly as people move through it.
It is an approach that Brahman Hills has come to value in Steyn's work.
"This recognition could not have gone to someone more deserving," says Gonyora. "Tim has an incredible ability to understand a big vision without ever losing sight of the smallest detail. His fingerprints are already part of the story of Brahman Hills, and as Serenity Garden takes shape, they will be part of its future too."
The Serenity Garden is on track for completion towards the end of 2026.