Design by nature

WORDS: Alex Dodd | PHOTOS: Candice Lawrence & Lien Botha

A series of cross-pollination workshops provides Cape Town designers with a fun way to attune their thinking to the logics of nature.

It’s not every day that you find yourself blowing bubbles across the clear morning sky above Kirstenbosch Gardens, before taking five meditative minutes to write a haiku about the moment. This was one of the many inspiring exercises that forms part of a series of Cross-Pollination Design Workshops, currently being offered by Karen Suskin, Haldane Martin and Helen Van Zyl.

Aimed at exploring “the designer’s role as a mediator between culture and nature”, the workshops are active, participative events in which designers are encouraged to think about nature in fresh ways that extend their respect for social and environmental concerns.

Unfolding on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, between 20 July and 3 August, this iteration of the workshop is being attended by a compelling cross-section of creatives, from a fashion stylist who once taught autistic children, to a successful fabric designer seeking fresh ideas in a group context outside of her private practice.

“I’ve always tried to look at the sustainable and eco-friendly side of things, so the workshop has been very inspirational so far,” says Jasper Eales, a young industrial design graduate who is about to launch his newly designed space-saving surfboard storage system. What the participants seem to have in common is a desire to actively explore the patterns in nature and generative theories within the emerging design field to advance their design conceptualisation.

Realigning humanity with nature

The thinking behind the course is strongly inspired by the work of The Nature Institute, a not-for-profit organisation in upstate New York, which serves as a local and international forum for the exchange of ideas about re-visioning science and technology in an effort to realign humanity with nature.

Saturday’s workshop began amidst an explosion of electrifying orange aloes at Kirstenbosch. Equipped with drawing boards, charcoal crayons and a box of pastels, we embarked on a nature trail aimed at awakening our curiosity and appreciation of the diversity of nature and the unique qualities of each of the four elements: earth, air, water and fire. Inspired by Henri Bortoft’s definitive monograph on Goethe’s scientific method, The Wholeness of Nature, Suskin read out several piquant quotes by the German writer, biologist, theoretical physicist and polymath.

I felt, at moments, like I had been transported into a Victorian postmodern novel by AS Byatt, as we were invited to describe leaves, hold rocks or close our eyes and attempt to capture the sound of cascading water in a pastel drawing… The exercises were remarkably successful at reawakening everyone’s sense of wonder at the everyday miracles of life, reminding us that, as adults, we’re still allowed to be just as mystified as we were on a butterfly watching expedition at kindergarten.

After a full, but sublimely calm morning at Kirstenbosch, we decamped to Martin’s studio – an expansive light-filled space in a renovated church just off of Albert Road in Woodstock. Having studied the qualities of the four elements out in the field, we were invited to bring this knowledge to bear on various of his distinctive furniture designs. From the iconic Zulu Mama Chair to the Polyhedra Modular Coffee Table to the Wallflower Urban Garden, we intuited what elements were dominant or subtly present in each piece, and concluded that most of Martin’s designs were a fine balance of earth and air.

“The whole idea behind ‘cross-pollination’ is that a more heightened appreciation for nature can be developed in all walks of life, so our basic programme can be applied to any situation, whether educational, organisational or personal,” says Suskin, a multimedia artist, interdisciplinary designer and design lecturer, who has been a proponent of sustainable design before it became a critical global trend.

“Another of our recent workshops was with the restaurant staff at Spier, helping to develop a consciousness around organic and bio-dynamic food produce in their team – from the people who clean the floors to the front-of-house staff… It’s all about meeting change and shifting the way that we think.”

For further information or to book a Cross-Pollination Workshop: cross-poll@icon.co.za