Making more and more

WORDS Nadine Botha PHOTOS & VIDEO Jan Ras

March 2014: With National Water Week from 17 to 24 March, and Earth Hour on Saturday 29 March, the WWF has moved The Journey of Water installation to the V&A Waterfront.

January 2014: Soon after being shortlisted for an Icon award for best emerging design studio in the world, VISI caught up with Lyall Sprong and Marc Nicolson about their new Story of Water installation at Kirstenbosch. They also told us about their upcoming Maker Library project.

Over the past three years, Cape Town design duo Thingking has become known for contraptions such as Tweet-operated vending machines, gumball dispensers made of Milnerton Market finds, and robotic pancake-making aids for kids.

At Design Indaba last year, they met British design curator and educator Daniel Charny who spoke about the maker revolution and his record-breaking Power of Making exhibition at the V&A Museum in London, as well as launching the Fixperts social network.

In February, Daniel will return to South Africa to launch The Maker Library Network, a British Council Connect/ZA project, at the Guild Design Fair (read more about Africa’s first international design fair here). “Daniel reckons libraries are changing and wants to make them more like demonstration spaces,” explains Marc. The libraries will have areas for workshops, a core set of books and a gallery. Thingking is the local project lead.

For those who are more into marvelling than making, get to Kirstenbosch to see Thingking’s water-cycle installation on behalf of WWF in collaboration with Ogilvy.

thingking.co.za,  makerlibraries.org,  wwf.org.za, ogilvy.co.za

As featured in the WILD DESIGN issue of VISI magazine, an official World Design Capital 2014 project.