-
Safe trade : We took a walk up to the taxi rank to see the design changes made to create better, safer trading spaces for the market vendors. -
Talk shop -
Open House Architecture : One of the highlights of the day was a visit to Open House Architecture, the studio of architects, Heinrich and Ilze Wolff. -
Talk shop : Fully decorated seminar space at City Hall. We love this! -
Skinny LaMinx -
Cape Town Station -
Jason's Bakery : What would a walk on Bree Street be without stopping over at Jason’s Bakery? -
Bree Street : We also went to the city’s hip-and-happening Bree Street to visit one of the city’s most popular textile designers, Heather Moore of Skinny LaMinx, to get the lowdown on what drives her design business. -
Open House Architecture : Heinrich and Ilze introduced their new project, which is going to revolutionise how we experience the market space at the V&A Waterfront. -
Fan Walk : We continued our walk up towards Prestwich Place Memorial. -
Skinny LaMinx -
Infecting the City : At Prestwich Memorial, chairperson of the National Arts Festival Artistic Committee and director of GIPCA, Jay Pather talked us through some highlights of Cape Town’s Infecting the City public art festival. -
Design is for All -
Open House Architecture -
Design is for All -
Open House Architecture -
Cape Town Station : Cape Town’s train station went through a massive design overhaul in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. Commuters continue to benefit. -
Truth HQ : Truth Coffee’s David Donde started off the morning by chatting to us about the design elements that go into Truth’s coffee culture. -
Grand Parade : Architect Ilze Wolff talks us through the importance of design and the opportunities for design that exist at public spaces like Cape Town’s Grand Parade. -
Talk Shop -
Open House Architecture -
Design is for All : Some of the exciting and life changing designs on show at the city hall. -
Open Design Cape Town : The City Hall, where most of the festival’s event will be taking place.
WORDS & PHOTOS Malibongwe Tyilo
As part of the Open Design Cape Town festival running until Saturday 31 August, VISI’s intrepid editor-at-large Malibongwe Tyilo went on a walking tour of inner-city design.
The inaugural Open Design Cape Town festival seeks to educate and inform about design, while offering a platform to designers across various disciplines to showcase their work. We all love and are familiar with design in terms of beautiful shiny luxury items, but Open Design goes much deeper than our more frivolous needs by highlighting how design changes society as a whole, from the privileged to the most disadvantaged.
One of the activities on the programme was a walk through the city, guided by Zahira Asmal, founder and director of Designing South Africa. We stopped at several city destinations, enjoyed presentations to and entered into discussions with some of the city’s most influential creative minds – including the founder of Open Design, architect Tsai, who we interviewed here.
All this got us very excited for the festival, and for Cape Town’s year-long World Design Capital festival next year. We strongly recommend that you visit the website to check out the programme. The events are a mix of free and ticketed event at various venues around Cape Town, including the city hall and we have also made a VISI guide to the Open Design highlights here.
For a full programme on what’s on at Open Design Cape Town visit www.opendesignct.com.
