Winner: Most Beautiful Object in South Africa 2019

houtlander

WORDS Lindi Brownell Meiring IMAGE Hayden Phipps


The winner of the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa for 2019 was announced at this year’s Design Indaba Festival.

Every year, Design Indaba calls on industry leaders and influencers to nominate what they think is the most beautiful object in the country before opening the vote up to the public to decide which object or concept will win.

This year, 20% of the total votes resulted in the accolade being awarded to local furniture brand Houtlander’s Interdependence Bench II, which was nominated by entrepreneur Nandi Dlepu.

The bright blue bench, designed by Houtlander’s Phillip Hollander and Stephen Wilson, is punctuated by a playful sculptural twist.

“The manufacturing ability exhibited with this product is applaud worthy,” says Nandi on the Design Indaba website. “I really love that it’s an abstraction of something familiar. A shakers style love seat with a twist, literally!”

See the full list of nominees here. Read more about Houtlander in the 100th issue of VISI and see more of the duo’s designs at houtlander.co.za. For more information about the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa, visit designindaba.com.