Weaving a New Landscape

The Wadi Screen, a sculptural divider with textures inspired by shifting natural landscapes, reflects the evolving language of weaving within TheUrbanative’s practice.

WORDS Gina Dionisio PHOTOS Courtesy of TheUrbanative & Grey Room

Johannesburg-based design studio TheUrbanative unveiled the Wadi Screen, a sculptural divider, at this year’s Cape Town Furniture Week. A finalist for the CTFW x VISI Design Prize, the newly launched piece takes cues from the shifting textures of natural landscapes and signals an important milestone in the studio’s evolving design language.

From the early Nasara Screens, made of steel and woven cord, to a softer dialogue of natural materials, sculptural wool forms, and colour-stained timber, the piece reflects an evolving language of making. Taking its name from the Swahili word ‘wadi’, meaning valley, the concept for the screen emerged from a collaboration with Something Good Studio for the Kusafiri knitwear collection, where themes of landscape, movement, and travel were explored.

“We are constantly revisiting and questioning our own work,” says Mpho Vackier, Founder and Creative Director of TheUrbanative. “With the Wadi Screen we wanted to explore how our language of weaving could evolve through a new material. Wool allowed the surface to become more sculptural and landscape-like, extending our ongoing interest in material storytelling and evolving ways of making.”

At the centre of the Wadi Screen sits a woven wool panel composed of layered natural and coloured yarns that form sculptural relief across the surface. As light moves across the piece, the textures shift gently, evoking the contours of terrain held within a frame. Produced in collaboration with Grey Room, the woven panel features wool sourced from Weluka, highlighting the use of locally sourced natural materials. The fibre gathers, layers, and builds texture across the surface, extending the studio’s long-standing exploration of weaving into a new sculptural language. The structure surrounding the woven panel remains deliberate and precise: a steel frame traces the outline, establishing rhythm and order, while the introduction of wool softens the geometry within it.

At the base, stained timber finished in a deep red hue forms part of an ongoing exploration within the studio into colour and timber. The staining process reflects a broader investigation into carpentry techniques, adding another layer of newly developed skills to the practice.

The Wadi Screen wasn’t the only new piece on display at Cape Town Furniture Week. At The Totemic Field, a collaborative exhibition held at Sisonke Gallery, TheUrbanative presented new and reimagined works from its African Crowns, Homecoming, and Ndebele collections. Highlights included the Fula Chair, a progression of the Fulani Chair; the Lupita Accent Lamp | Chroma, inspired by the Lupita Floor Lamp; and the Zinhle Echo, a new interpretation of the Zinhle side table.

New materials and textures emerge as the studio continues to investigate both traditional and contemporary ways of making. “We wanted to push the materials and push ourselves,” says Mpho of the new pieces. Like landscapes shaped over time, the work continues to evolve through material, craft, and technology. | theurbanative.com

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