cities alive - Annelie Koller

CITIES ALIVE
one small seed takes you on a
cultural tour through our favourite SA
metropoles. From the main roads to
the back alleys of these creative spaces,
we venture through the pop culture
terrain to uncover the whos, whats,
wheres and whys that make these cities
shine. Welcome to the real Cape Town,
Johannesburg, and Durban.
ILLUSTRATIONS:
wesley van eeden (hope project)
BARS Waiting Room | Kimberley Hotel | Caprice | Planet Bar | Daddy Cool Bar | Neighbourhood | Asoka | Beaulah Bar | Rick’s Café Americain | La Med | Julep | Rafiki’s | Kink | Perseverence Tavern
MUSIC VENUES Fiction | Assembly | Bronx |Zula Sound Bar | Mercury Lounge | Karma Lounge | The Fez | Jade | R.O.A.R. | Evol | Rainbow Room Jazz Club | Rhino Room | Roots | Speedway 105
RESTAURANTS The Kitchen Superrette | Jardine | Bombay Bicycle Club | Caveau | The Duchess of Wisbeach | La Perla | Mesopotamia | Royale Eatery | & Union |Chandani | Saigon | Chef Pon's
CAFÉS Truth Coffee Cult | Origins| Deluxe Coffeeworks | Miss K | Queen of Tarts | Beleza| Lazari | Espresso Lab | Bird Café | Giovanni’s Deli World | Café Neo | Vida e Caffè on Kloof | Sand Bar
SHOPPING Missibabba | Mememe |A store | Poppa Trunk’s | Gregor Jenkin | Weekend Special | Casantiques | Mabu Vinyl | Shelflife | Arigato | The Old Biscuit Mill | Ska Clothing | Kalk Bay
ART GALLERIES Blank Space | What if the World | Young Blackman | Michael Stevenson | Association for Visual Arts | Art South Africa | Salon 91 | 34 Fine Art | Wessel Snyman Creative | Word of Art
BANDS Fokofpolisiekar | aKing | Gazelle | The Dirty Skirts | Jack Parow | Die Antwoord | Goldfish | Taxi Violence | Hog Hoggidy Hog | The Rudimentals | Dave Ferguson | 7th Son | P.H.Fat
CREATIVES Doreen Southwood | Brett Murray | Athi-Patra Ruga | Julia Rosa Clark | Asha Zero | Anton Kannemeyer | Zander Blom | Adriaan Hugo | James Webb | Brendan Bell-Roberts | Lisa Brice
BETWEEN THE DEVIL’S PEAK &
THE DEEP BLUE SEA
WORDS: annelie rode
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY:
PHOTOGRAPHY: adriaan
sarah claire picton
louw
We’re not here to write impassioned prose about the countless
beauties of Cape Town, so don’t expect a soliloquy by Her
Majesty The Mountain as she reigns over her people, picking
at the innumerable delicacies we’re fortunate to find in our
backyard. That we’ll leave to the candy-coated guides you pick
up as you disembark the plane. We’re here to take to the streets
of Cape Town to explore why the life is so good and why such a
burgeoning creative community has shaped.
Cape Town promotes interaction. Because it is so contained,
essential activities like entertainment, retail and other services are
in close proximity — and, they are walkable. If the walk is an
experience that is beautiful, safe and clean, if you can engage
with the buildings or people in the street, then you have the
start of a winning formula: one including an early-bird coffee,
a lunchtime visit to a gallery, and a cosy or wild spot for a drink
after work. All these intervals decrease the pace of life, and, most
EVENTS Design Indaba | ‘Magic of Bubbles’ Cap Classique & Champagne Festival | Rocking the Daisies | Afrikaburn | Earth Dance | Cape Town International Jazz Festival | Spier Contemporary |
Infecting the City | Summer Kirstenbosch Summer Concerts| RAMfest | Easter Vortex | Mother City Queer Project (MCQP) | International Fashion Week | World Cup 2010 | Cape Argus | Two Oceans |
International Comedy Festival | Hermanus Whale Festival | PRO-X Games | J&B Met | Red Bull Big Wave | Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
THINGS WE DON’T LIKE That they haven’t made Long Street a pedestrian-only zone at night | That there aren’t enough bicycle lanes in the city | Not enough free Wi-fi Hotspots | That Buchanan
Square is a mall around a parking lot and not interacting with the street | Buildings like 15 on Orange that desecrated a beautiful heritage building and replaced it with a cold-faced hotel that would have
been better suited as an office block… in the ‘80s. | The Tampon Towers | People who don’t call back. | Cliqueness still exists | Friends on tik | Flakes
EXPERIENCES WE RECOMMEND Driving with the top down to Llandudno for champagne on the rocks | Wine-tasting all weekend | Live music, local DJs and local hip-hop | Sunset in Camps Bay |
Sunrise leaving Long Street | Walking up Lion’s Head for full moon | Art exhibition openings in Woodstock | Mzoli’s Meat in Gugulethu | Summer trance parties | Walking along Sea Point promenade
importantly, create a platform for urban engagement, facilitating
the dissemination of the secret ingredient to any thriving creative
community — ideas.
If this on its own were enough, however, then a place like Century
City would be hugely successful. So wherein lies the magic? Two
key elements account for Cape Town’s magic. The first is in a
city’s diversity, and it is where these differences converge that
opportunities are found.
Ravi Naidoo, proud Capetonian and gregarious founder of
Interactive Africa, is a business guru who has proved to the world
that South Africa, particularly Cape Town, is a force to contend
with as an innovation and creative hub. He was instrumental in
making the 2010 World Cup possible, putting the first African in
space, and bringing Design Indaba not only to Cape Town, but
introducing this first creative convention to the world.
Our second magic ingredient is put best by Ravi when he says,
“The beauty lies at the intersection.” Cape Town is a cornucopia of
physical and metaphysical intersections begging to be uncovered
and explored. It’s not just the mountain and her beauty, although
we all hold this close to our hearts; it is that in this city there
is always opportunity for the fearless to pioneer, areas for the
progressive to develop, and countless moments of glitter and
grime to incite any creative mind.
Nowhere is this more evident than on the streets of Cape Town,
where you meet those fearless and progressive minds that took the
opportunities at the intersection, shaping their city to create this
worldclass quality of life, and globally renowned creative Mecca.
One core element these people share is not just their incredible
belief in the city, but the integrity with which they approach their
work. In this city, community always trumps commerce. So, let us
walk you down these streets and introduce you to their people:
LONG STREET:
One of their most notable interventions on Long Street was the
development of a group of inspired hotels. Together, the maverick
hoteliers spearheaded changing perceptions of how to make a
city more vibrant and exciting to live in. (Jody has even proposed
a zipline tour through the city.) In 2005 they caught people’s
attention with the Daddy Long Legs Art Hotel — the first in the
city to make hotel living affordable for the edgy and young. They
later bought the old Metropole Hotel (then digressing into drugs
and prostitution) to found the Grand Daddy (right). This is now
a real tourist destination, and a much-loved location for glossy
fashion magazines to shoot, as boundaries were really pushed with
The Airstream Penthouse Trailer Park on the hotel’s roof —
the world’s first rooftop trailer park, with each aluminium caravan
having its own unique, artistically inspired interior. The rooftop also
hosts Friday sundowners to enjoy a chilled glass of Graham Beck
bubbly while watching an intimate acoustic gig featuring the likes
of Lonesome Dave Ferguson or The Jack Mantis Band. For Jody
and Nick’s next incredible venture, they’re taking the airstreams
into the wild — and the city’s creativity with them. The Old Mac
Daddy Luxury Trailer Park will feature twelve airstreams designed
by top artists, in a bungalow setup in the beautiful apple-growing
Elgin Valley.
Multinational and divergent, Long Street never sleeps. It wears
caftans and backpacks by day, hawking artefacts from Africa and
selling antiques from a bygone era. After sundown, it reveals skinny
jeans and locally designed jackets bought on the street hours earlier,
and is eager to propagate any moneys saved and anxious to leave
dignities intact. Walk from the foreshore to the top of trendy Kloof
Street, and Long Street changes nationality like a spinning globe,
offering fare from all corners of the world. This motley mix of people
and places makes it one of the most interesting areas in SA.
But Long Street is most famous for its after-dark rendezvous. Next
time you wake up in agony and confused, grappling three thoughts
at once: ‘Where’s the water?’, ‘Where’s my wallet?’ and ‘How the
hell did I get home?!’ and slowly start piecing the night together
(There was a burger at Royale, tequila at Waiting Room, that girl at
Neighbourhood and then hours of bouncing to the best electro at
Fiction), but then you breathe a sigh of relief as you see your wallet
on the floor… you really only have two people to blame: Brothers
Sascha and Hugo Berolsky.
Aside from the multiculturalism adding the flavour, and the nightlife
adding the spice, what also makes this street so unbeatable is the
architecture. The Victorian architecture preserved by the intervention
of architect Revel Fox in the 1970s has undeniable charm, and,
because it was built when cities housed people and not purely
businesses, its proportions have human scale. The balconies
create covered walkways under which street life flourishes, and
the multidimensionality of another level not only doubles up the
interaction space but puts more eyes on the street, making it a
safer place to be — a fact quite evident during the 2010 draw that
occurred with minimal incident.
But while the urban fabric is there, it needs someone with vision to
sew the neighbourhood together. Long Street would not have its safe,
habitable environment were it not for two insightful developers who
recognised its value. They started buying sections of the street, first
with the building that is now Cape to Cuba (once housing a massage
parlour), and now owning more than ten buildings in Long Street,
including the New Space Theatre, restaurants and hotels. Together
they’ve renovated the buildings, and improved the surrounding
area by bringing in hand-picked tenants. Not your average urban
developers, Jody Aufrichtig and Nick Ferguson (left), owners of
Indigo properties, saw Cape Town as a city that could still benefit
from significant changes, and so rather than just buy beautiful and
historic buildings to upgrade, they were more concerned with creating
a dialogue with the street and keeping alive that real beating heart
within the city of Cape Town.
BREE STREET:
Sascha and Hugo (right) are owners of those havens for the
city’s über-hip. Sascha just wanted to create a place where
he could hang out among like-minded people, when he first
opened Royale Eatery all those years ago. Of course they were
given prime location by Jody and Nick, and their attention to
detail appealed to the senses of the creative and hip. On top
of that, they serve a damn good burger. Back then Long Street
was showing signs of decay, and a different crowd may not have
appreciated a meal in the grubby street, but Capetonians have
always favoured edgy over safe, at the intersection where synergy
could be created, and with this their popularity grew.
More debonair and diverse than decadent Long Street,
Bree Street represents the essence of Cape Town city life. It
is a tree-lined boulevard, soon to sport a dedicated cycle
lane, offering everything from scooter mechanics to plastic
surgeons, designer furniture and rare DVDs, as well as
excellent cuisine (one spot has a dedicated slot in the world’s
top 100 restaurants) and even a bar below a 209-year-old
church.
These quirky and personal places reveal the true nature of the
city and the value Capetonians place on the local creative
market and its artisanal products. The area initially offered
lower rental, larger space and intriguing architecture that
lends itself to interesting arenas for those with a little ingenuity
and a lot of vision.
They soon extended to the upper floors, creating the successful
Waiting Room: a trendy bar, club and lounge where live bands
and electronic music draws a dynamic crowd every night of the
week. The top level offers striking city views, while the downstairs
dancefloor hosts live DJs, from Wednesday through Saturday,
who bounce around beats of hip-hop, funk, dub, jazz, reggae
breaks and heart-warming soul. And paying tribute to the love
of live tunes, Mondays and Tuesdays are dedicated to creating a
stage for live bands and a venue for their fans.
The next endeavour for visionaries Sacha and Hugo Berolsky was
an upmarket London pub-inspired restaurant, bar and lounge,
named Neighbourhood, co-owned with the owners of Fiction
nightclub, Jonathan Cline and Adam Kline. With a wrap-around
balcony overlooking the moving human kaleidoscope below,
Neighbourhood has the ingredients for a perfect Capetonian
night out… great food, good conversation and a must-have
feature — one of the largest beer selections in Cape Town! As
the afternoon rolls by, the daily two-for-one cocktail special from
4pm–7pm transforms Neighbourhood into a magnet to the
masses.
And then there is Fiction: a club that for four years has given
Capetonians an amplified love affair of dirty visual and audio
disobedience. Fiction is a playground for the children of the
night, and a platform for the DJs of the underground, hosting
bang-out beats from electro and minimal to liquid drum ‘n bass,
glitch-hop, dub-step and broken beats. Local regulars to watch
out for are Niskerone, Markus Wormstorm and Haezer, as well
as Cape Town’s heroine of the underground, Miss Safiyya Bryce
aka Funafuji, who has thrust the wub wub wub beats of dub
throughout the Mother City.
Their last venture, The Assembly, took the brothers out to
uncharted seas, but they battled through and have now made
this one of the most successful music venues just a stone’s throw
away in the east city. Words to describe it are: ‘large, live and
loud’, where all elements in the club bring the focus back to
the beats. The expansive interior is key to Assembly’s winning
recipe to being a thriving live band venue, with the massive stage
playing host to local acts from the likes of Fokofpolisiekar and
Gazelle to international acts like Steve Aoki and Finley Quaye.
Much like the Hacienda in the glory days of Manchester, the
venues of Sascha and Hugo create the breeding ground for
setting trends in music, fashion and street culture in the city — all
places to generate that magic interaction that allows creativity to
prosper.
Before we leave Long Street we shouldn’t forget an equally exciting
venue where the diverse crowd is making waves in the city: Zula
Sound Bar and its British owners, Vusa and Zoë Mazula (left),
who came to Cape Town to marry and never went home. Their
dream was to create a place to expand musical horizons (and
thankfully Jody and Nick were there to offer the right space),
believing the hip-hop crowd would welcome a bit of rock, and
the drum ’n bass crowd could appreciate funk. So, they mixed
music genres, playing big rock bands some nights and smaller
experimental outfits on others, constantly attracting crowds who
weren’t always linked to the genres being played on the night,
and thus creating another great place for crosspollination. Vusa
now says he has “the coolest job in the world on the coolest street
in the world, and wouldn’t want to do it anywhere else”.
Brad Armitage, co-owner with Rui Estevez (right) of &
Union, shows me how to pour my unfiltered beer from their
San Gabriel range, while chatting in the new beer salon and
charcuterie about their decision to open up on Bree Street.
Once a dull corner under an active ‘NG kerk’, it is a true
South African challenge; and since they’ve opened, the
whole square has come alive.
Brad and Rui’s philosophy is not to sell a product but a quality
of life, and thus are always finding new ways for people to
appreciate Cape Town. In their latest venture they’ve put a
spin on our most robust but single-minded consumer, the
beer drinker. Flaunting a champagne top, they suggest the
San Gabriel, like wine, should be paired with food, uncorking
a whole new way of seeing.
Considering Brad's previous venture, Vida e Caffè, received
accolades from Monocle editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé, for being
“one of the most beautiful coffee shops in the world”, then
you know these guys have a lot to teach and their vision,
passion and integrity is laudable.
The success of this suggestion, and their focus on marketing
lifestyle before product, has led to their opening & Union on a
previously unassuming corner in Bree Street, now a testimony
to their knack for fusing an international concept with local
flair. This not only raises the standard of the surrounding area,
but also the bar on expectations and quality, challenging
Capetonians to aim even higher.
Just down the road, one will discover Albert Hall, an antique
store by day transformed to live music venue by night. This
intimate venue retains the charm it creates by giving pasttreasures second chances by day, by offering sanctuary to the arty
crowd in Cape Town…who will likely don a Salvation Army token,
with their hearts, on their shoulders to the gigs at night.
WOODSTOCK:
Woodstock is a cacophony of buildings, people and
cars, varying dramatically in degrees of dilapidation or
amplification. Ad agencies next to junk stores, sweaty
workshops next to galleries, beautifully restored Victorian
homes neighbouring on crack houses: these divergent spaces
contain all the colours and creeds of the real Cape Town,
making this neighbourhood the most vibrant in the city, and
the streets the most serendipitous.
The main nexus for the artworld has settled a few streets up
in Victoria Road. Already accommodating an array of interior
stores, the first gallery to make the move was the old stalwart
The Goodman Gallery, but as they had a pre-established
clientbase they chose a space tucked away in the back of a
building. The first gallery to brave a shopfront on the scary streets
of Woodstock was a small space called Blank Projects. This little
unknown experimental project and gallery space unleashed the
full potential of the area and soon Michael Stevenson and BellRoberts Gallery (now Art South Africa) followed, empowering
smaller galleries like Word of Art. The streets are now completely
alive during exhibition openings, with little restaurants and shops
popping up all along the way.
It is not uncommon to urban regeneration for the audacious
artworld to pioneer the regeneration of a precinct. The
mixture of a challenging but character-driven urban
environment, proximity to the central city, larger space and
lower rent fits their profile perfectly, and they clear the way
for the apprehensive masses to follow. This is exactly what’s
happened in Woodstock.
They were not happy, however, to create only this platform for
creatives, as there was a whole local gourmet and artisanal
market out there that needed to be experienced. So, combine
the entrepreneurial ingenuity of Justin and Cameron with the
space created by the real estate acumen of Jody and Nick, and
the Neighbour Goods Market was born. Held inside The Old
Biscuit Mill, it’s more of a garden party, with marketers milling
around with cocktails or a glass of wine, tasting cheeses and
pestos and gorging on decadent finger lunches. Chilli plants and
snapdragons sit pretty next to haybale-benches, while smells of
rocket lamb burgers and sugary cinnamon pancakes waft out of
the food courtyard in the old sky-lit Victorian warehouse. But it
is an actual market, which sells the best locally produced goods
—including organic fresh produce, food, furniture, clothing,
jewellery and more — becoming an utter testament to the great
talent and resources of the city.
Who else would be forging ahead in this area, than the
conscientious Nick and Jody? With their ability to see the
diamond in a piece of charcoal, they quickly wrapped up
the old Pyotts biscuit factory in Albert Road after seeing its
great potential. They demolished what had no historical
significance, found the right creative tenancy, and created
“a theatre for retail” — what is now well known as The Old
Biscuit Mill, housing galleries and design stores, different
markets on weekends, and even prime events, like the weekly
Deco Dance electro parties and 2009’s infamous MCQP.
A little up Albert Road another revolution has unfolded.
Justin Rhodes and Cameron Munro, fierce crusaders of
unexplored territory, were giving experimental art, fashion,
culture and creativity a platform in the east city in a small
space called What if the World… (left). This kind of space
is necessary in a community where young creatives have
products but no means of outlet. Justin and Cameron
decided to challenge the reigning archaic art galleries and
find a place to challenge comfort zones as well. They moved
their space deep into the heart of the squalor and created a
gallery space that gave new artists a stepping stone into the
artworld. Their little fledgling space has become a formidable
art space — now rated as one of the top up-and-coming
galleries in the world.
These galleries are bringing the international arena into the
streets of Woodstock — a very positive move for the city. It is
also one element we cannot afford to exclude when investigating
the reasons for Cape Town’s evident success. The continuous
influx of internationals, permanent and temporary, brings firstworld ideas and innovation, along with expectations of a higher
standard of living, in art and in design. Cape Town also has the
benefit of being rooted in a third-world country, creating keen
and conscious sensibilities, and a very progressive and creative
community — and in some cases, like the work of Ravi, Nick and
Jody, and Brad and Rui, even creating concepts and products that
cause the world to look to Cape Town for inspiration.
Cape Town is a worldclass city that is thriving at the intersection
between the peak of the devil and the depths of the deep blue
sea.
BARS Kitchener's | Rose Boys | Radium Beerhall | Darkie Café | Gin | Back2Basix | The Bohemian | Zoo Lake Bowls Club | The Circle Bar | The Jolly Roger | The Troyeville Hotel | The Blues Room
CLUBS The Woods | Tokyo Star | Bassline | Tanz Café | The Doors | The Alexander Theatre | The Red Room | Moloko | Teazers | The Black Dahlia | Taboo | Tokyo Sky | Fashion TV Café
RESTAURANTS Twist | Lucky Moo | Wolves | Soulsa | The Attic | Bridge Diner | Sophiatown | La Bella Figura | Mo’s Jamaican Chicken | Adega | Trabella | Mama’s Shebeen
CAFÉS Boat | The Birdcage | Bari Bar café | Salvation Café | The Old Fort Coffee Shop | Moemas | Lulu | The Patisserie | Bean There Coffee Roastery | Caffiain | Fournos Bakery
SHOPPING Black Coffee | Design is a good idea | Love Jozi | Bamboo Centre | D.O.P.E. Store | CO-OP | Dokter and Misses | Munks Concepts Stores | Nike Concept Store | Ritual Stores | Tiltt
ART GALLERIES Rooke Gallery | Brodie/Stevenson | Everard Read Gallery | Goodman Gallery | Gallery MOMO | CO-OP | Arts on Main | Bailey Seippel Gallery | Spark! Gallery | Gallery on 4th
BANDS Sweat X | The Parlotones | The Death Valley Blues Band | Tumi and the volume | 340ml | Fuzigish | Wonderboom | BLK JKS | Flash Republic | Brenda Fassie | Prime Circle | The Narrow
JOBURG:
THE CITY WITH A HEART OF GOLD
WORDS: annelie rode
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY: david chislett, lara koseff
PHOTOGRAPHY: brett rubin, brett darko steele & uviwe
mangweni
Somewhere between heaven and hell, on the doorstep of
purgatory, is a mighty city named Johannesburg. Here, there are
two choices: live in despair and lament your fate, or learn to
grow wings and take flight above it all. We know nothing is more
breathtaking than a highveld thunderstorm, and a fat cheque at
month-end helps turn a blind eye to many ills; but what really is
the allure of living in such a challenging city?
The only people who can answer this are those who’ve taken
up this challenge, and the only way to understand it is through
their eyes. So, we ask an independent filmmaker, a maverick
publisher, a young architect, a sound designer and a creative
agency director why they keep hanging on and what makes living
in Johannesburg so unique. We take a walk through the wild side
of Joburg’s music scene as this is one thing that keeps the people
together. And finally, we look deep into the neglected soul of
the inner city to find the people that are putting their hearts into
resuscitating this one-time City of Gold.
CREATIVES AVANT CAR GUARD | Pieter Hugo | Jane Alexander | William Kentridge | Frances Goodman | Willem Boshof | Rodney Place| David Koloane | Nandipha Mntambo | Penny Siopis
EVENTS Joburg Art Fair | Oppikoppi | Joburg Burning | Fashion week (all of them) | Lusito Land | The Rand Easter Show | Lucky Fish Music Festival | Soweto Festival | Arts Alive
THINGS WE DON’T LIKE ‘A buffet-munching useless group of power-point-presenting, quasi-government- individuals that spend all the rate payers money and don’t do anything’. Adam Levy | Crime
and violence | Developers who do not take responsibility for upgrading the street life when they upgrade buildings | Buildings being left derelict, encouraging crime | Spending too much time in your car |
Labels do not mean fashion! | Endless seas of gated communities, especially Fourways | People too scared to leave these communities and venture into the city
EXPERIENCES WE RECOMMEND A highveld thunderstorm | The Top Star Drive-in for the view | Electro party at The Woods | Drink at the oldest pub in the city, Kitchener’s | Go to the top of the Carlton
Centre | The Doll House for a milkshake | Tandoori chicken at the Fordsburg market | Eating Ethiopian cuisine in Little Addis | Eating Chinese cuisine in China Town | An all weekend house party with a local
Joburg is foremost a dynamic, ever-changing city that never
sleeps; it rolls around in bed, kicking off the bedcovers, exposing
you to the elements — and you have to survive. Adrian Loveland,
a filmmaker whose debut, Unhinged, Surviving Joburg, will be
released soon, says: “In one day's edition of a Joburg newspaper
you could find the basis for a movie, a few novels, a song, a
joke and a couple of essays. I think it differs from many cities in
that you can't rely on the environment to soothe your headspace.
Instead, you have to use the place's strong points to create things
which somehow calm the mind.”
It is very true that when you can’t turn to the environment, you turn
to challenge yourself; you have to utilise any available resources
and use initiative. Nicholas Nesbitt, better known as Kidu
from Team Uncool, says Joburg is a place “where you create
something from nothing — and this has given birth to a very
productive and strong creative community”.
Louise Gamble, publishing editor of SL Magazine, reiterates this
when she says that the city has its creative edge because: “It
is more difficult to live here (aesthetically, emotionally, and in
terms of safety) and also harder, in that the city seems to have
a thicker skin and a generally more resilient, less emotionallysensitive attitude towards getting things done. Joburgers really
just get on with it.”
Most people in Joburg aren’t here by choice, but the one
choice they do have is to make it happen. Adrian realised, "It
was completely counterproductive. I decided to look for the
good, embrace the city for what it is, and put a lot of effort into
making it work. Whether you love it or hate it, it's a place that
breeds passion. There are very few Joburgers that are completely
ambivalent when it comes to their city.”
JOZI: THE CAPITAL OF GROOVE
So the City of Gold is complicated. We know the people are
gregarious, but let’s not forget where Joburg really sets the
pace, and that’s the music scene. More electric than a Highveld
thunderstorm and more exhilarating than driving, top down,
through Hillbrow at three in the morning, the city is the perfect
breeding ground for some of the country’s most primal sounds.
Let’s take a wander with David Chislett, well-known MC and
radio personality, as he takes us through the crashes and lightning
of the scene.
”Johannesburg is vast and every corner hides surprises. Head
on down to Newtown for indie-electro parties of mammoth
proportions at The Woods and venture across the road to The
Bassline for Afro pop, hip-hop and R&B events as the jolling
public of Soweto heads north into the city. Think DJ Bob, The
Blunted Stuntman, and Kenzero. Tumi, Jozi and Newtown are all
bands working their trade in the Newtown precinct.
Russell Grant is one such individual who is very decisive about
his passion for Joburg and is a most proactive contributor to
Joburg city life. He says, “There is an energy that’s uniquely
Joburg, which usually entails an idea being born in the middle
of the night, and the production of it starting the following
morning!” His company, Red Team Go, creates a platform for
the city’s artistically minded to collaborate. He is also trying to
lure people back to the city through one of his projects, the Main
Street Life developments. According to him, the heart of the city
is begging for intervention and there are opportunities abound to
become involved.
”For those a little more sedate and in a listening mood, acoustic
artists are the new flavour of the month with the likes of Rambling
Bones, Bongani, Gizelle and Orion laying it down on just
guitar with voice. Venues like Tanz Café, Espresso Jazz and
Back2Basix host plenty of acoustic nights citywide. But Jozi is
also the home of hardcore, with no shortage of punk, metal and
rock at venues like the Bohemian, Cool Runnings and The
Black Dahlia. Punkers Fuzigish and Swivel Foot are regulars
on the gig circuit here along with Voodoo Blues specialists The
Death Valley Blues Band.
Guy Alion, a young architect in the city says: ”What excites
me most are the opinions Joburgers have about their city.
Most people are attracted to the edginess of Jozi because its
vulnerability is honest and undisguised — what you see is what
you get. That honesty, however subtle, crude or flamboyant, is
what makes Joburg Joburg. Joburgers know who they are — the
good, the bad and the ugly — and they don’t apologise for it.”
”The previously sleepy suburb of Greenside hides Gin and Tokyo
Star down Gleneagles where an eclectic mix of indie, electro,
broken beats and everything in between can be heard on any
given night. The crowd is ferociously young and very mixed. In
Linden, Cantina Tequila is turning into a preferred venue for
punk kids on Tuesdays and dance heads every other night. If you
don’t have skinny jeans, an exploding-head hairdo and serious
attitude, best you stay home and watch Knight Rider reruns.
The real gold in Joburg is the people, and one of the best ways to
experience the city is to align yourself with the locals and let them
show you the sights, whether it be the Fordsburg market, martinis
at the Hyde Park hotel, street parties in Soweto or house parties
in the ‘burbs, you’re always certain to have a good time. Louise
finds ”Joburgers are more accepting, interactive and engaging
with strangers. The distances to travel here are so much greater
that people make a real effort to see each other, and are therefore
far less flaky when it comes to social arrangements. There's also
this sense that we're all in it together, so we might as well make
the best of it.”
”The great north including Sandton and Fourways is home to
the more typical News Café late night dance set, peppered
with venues like Tokyo Sky, Fashion TV Café and Taboo.
Hidden away out that far north are also a great Cool Runnings
in Fourways (hosting everything from metal to punk to acoustic
nights), The Blues Room in Village Walk, and of course Tanz
Café in Bryanston (shortly relocating to Fourways). In keeping
with Sandton’s aspirational nature, the only key proviso out here
is that you’re well-heeled and even better dressed… Where
you come from matters not. Look out for Louise Carver, Loyiso,
Malaika and the likes this side.
”Johannesburg is also home to Emmarentia Dam and the
now-famous Old Mutual Sunday concerts known to feature
everybody who is anybody, including Goldfish, Freshly Ground,
The Parlotones, Just Jinjer, Vusi Mahlasela, Tidal Waves and
international names like Elton John and Michelle Shocked.
”It’s the biggest city in the country, of course it’s got the widest
choice — you just have to get out there and pay some attention.”
HIGH SOCIETY/LOWLY CITY
Dress it how ever you want, money is still the one
big drawcard to the City of Gold and probably
most booming metropolis in Africa, but you
wouldn’t say so driving through downtown Jozi.
The wealth that Joburg is built upon is selfishly
hidden behind high walls in the suburbs of
Sandton or Sandhurst, and any socialist notions of
distribution of wealth is lost with greed, ego and
mismanaged government departments. The inner
city, the once heart of Southern Africa, has been
disregarded and left in disrepair, becoming the
hunting ground of vultures preying off the needy
and destitute, selling low-cost housing and badly
planned neighbourhood as the new salvation. But
what is needed to return the inner city to its former
glory as Egoli, the place of gold? What will bring
the people back to the streets, making them proud
residents of the city? We found some courageous
individuals with principled ideals of returning to a
worldclass place of creative interaction and social
harmony.
ADAM LEVY: THE CARING CRUSADER
Outspoken, passionate and a lone crusader of bringing the quality
of life back to the inner city, Adam Levy (below) was recently
included in Mail & Guardian’s 200 most influential people in the
country. An architect at heart, a lawyer on paper and a developer
in the original sense of the word, where development is still
synonymous with progress, he’s been on a mission to change
perceptions on what a worldclass city really is, and to prove to the
sceptics and the apathetic developers that Johannesburg can be
a desirable, safe and lucrative place to live, work and have fun.
It hasn’t always been an easy path for this rogue, who doesn’t
want to rebel, only uplift a city that he cares about. Adam’s
inner-city manifesto serendipitously found him walking through
the streets of New York as he wondered why the same vitality of
inner-city living was not possible on his own doorstep. Coming
from a family of architects, a hereditary nostalgia for a city he
never knew was awoken, and he realised that engaging on street
level was how to build an inner-city community. He found his
calling and was attracted back to the existing urban fabric that
Braamfontein possessed, but which lay dormant, to find the
answer to how to become a better city builder, and, ultimately, a
community builder.
”I don’t want to be the Braamfontein martyr,” he says, “I just
want to show people there is an alternative lifestyle and a
different way of living. It’s so easy to complain, but so hard to
get involved.“ Adam decided to become involved and bought
his first building in (what was then) a rather deserted and
perilous area in Braamfontein, 155 Smit Street, and converted
it into New York-styled loft apartments. But, from the start, his
approach to development was different, as instead of maximising
tenancies to maximise rents, he designed the building to appeal
to creatives who’d be brave and progressive enough to buy into
his philosophy.
After this building he has since developed studios, offices, the
Alexander Theatre, and has attracted artists, galleries and
other creatives to the Braamfontein area. He now even has big
brands knocking on his doors for space. Next on the cards is
the development of the Lord Milner Hotel — a heritage building
dating back to 1894. Seeing Adam’s knowledge, passion and
dedication, we believe him when he says this is only a microcosm
of what he would like to achieve. And his thoughts on being
mayor one day (as he virtually already is in his own precinct of
Braamfontein)? “Someone like me can be more effective than the
existing mayor, because I care for the city. You need people that
care for the city.”
Adam does not want to be a lone operator. He says he can
influence the two blocks that he owns, but what about the other
50 in the city? He wants developers and architects to have
long-term vision as their buildings will be there for generations
to come. He stresses that “a building needs to engage with the
street” and that “great artisanship is taking something that is not
alive and making it inspirational”. And these are the principles he
lives by. “I have always approached my building, and everything,
with the thought: ‘How can I make it the best it can be in the
world.’ It can still be contextual, but you have to do it with the
same set of balls as the rest of the world.”
Many city-trawlers will have noticed the Trinity Session’s impact
on the city through their management of public artworks — a
result of their relationship with the City of Joburg’s Department of
Arts, Culture and Heritage and the Johannesburg Development
Agency — such as Clive van den Berg’s colossal ‘Eland’ (below)
in Braamfontein, the array of steel trees on Juta street, and
William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx’s ‘Firewalker’ at the end of
the Queen Elizabeth bridge. Beyond these monumental cultural
landmarks, the Trinity Session have facilitated countless public
art projects, bringing life to inner-city parks, humanising the new
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations with beautifully executed designs,
always working with and including the communities that live in
those areas.
THE TRINITY SESSIONS:
CONNECTING THE DOTS
For cultural collaborators Stephen Hobbs and Marcus
Neustetter (above), Johannesburg is not only their hometown,
their playground, their muse — it’s their biggest project. The
pair have worked together as artists, and within the cultural
organisation they initiated — the Trinity Session — since the early
2000s. While they have not always worked in the city of Joburg,
they have nonetheless ultimately changed its face.
While locals and outsiders alike are partial to giving Joburg a
hard time (crime, filth and lack of major natural landmarks seem
to be the main complaints) both Stephen and Marcus are endlessly
fascinated with the changing urban fabric of this notorious city.
Stephen’s research and interest in Johannesburg as a transforming
city has subsequently come together with Marcus’s fascination
with communication networks within urbanity. ”My interest has
been in communication within the urban space, the networks, the
things that connect people, the signage, the translation of virtual
space, the cellphone systems, and how the city itself is mapped
and understood,” says Marcus.
The key magnetism of Joburg in particular, Marcus explains, is:
“You’re never in a stagnant space; there’s this reinvention that
keeps on happening. Even now with urban regeneration… yes,
you find that pavements are being redone and buildings are
being invested in, but within that there are systems that keep
changing. So the drug lord might be out, but now there’s some
other scam that’s happening; or the city is being rejuvenated
and cleaned up, but while that’s all happening you’re working in
absolute chaos with hawkers and street traders and artists. It’s all
layered and active. And that ‘layeredness’ and activity makes for
interesting and inspiring work at the end of the day.”
One of their experiential projects was initiated after they were
standing outside Constitution Hill, discussing a potential public
artwork, and a man walked up and warned them in French that
they must avoid a dangerous area in the vicinity. They were struck
by this foreigner’s concern for them, even though they were
locals, and subsequently discovered this man formed part of a
huge community of Senegalese people living in Joburg. They
later planned a trip to Dakar, and approached these people to
draw maps of what Dakar looks like for them. Almost as a form
of experimental travel, the artists relied purely on the maps to
navigate their way around Dakar.
Stephen and Marcus came back to Joburg, exhibited their resulting
documentation at the University of Johannesburg gallery and
staged a guided walk for exhibition visitors from (UJ) to Hillbrow,
met up with members of the Senegalese community, had lunch
with them and walked back to the UJ gallery. This experience
of cultural exchange communicated what is, for Marcus, one
of the most compelling aspects of Joburg: “It’s such a hub; it
caters for so many.” While the urban space as a melting pot of
cultures is not necessarily unique to Joburg, what distinguishes
this multifarious city, Marcus believes, is that “it’s caught between
a first- and third-world environment. This in-between state sets up
a fascinating contrast and dialogue between those that have and
those that do not.”
MABONENG : INNER-CITY
INTERVENTION
Property developer Jonathan Liebmann (left) is young,
confident and clearly has the necessary spunk to pioneer
the creation of a new cultural hub in Johannesburg. In a
distressed and derelict part of the city — an area called City
and Suburban — Liebmann has fashioned his own precinct
that offers cutting-edge contemporary art, refined meals in
an olive tree courtyard and now, with the establishment of
residential block Main Street Life, a stylish place to lay down
your head.
When Liebmann initiated multi-use development Arts on
Main in the early 20th-century headquarters for construction
company DF Corlett, his motivation was artists, who are
known to catalyse urban gentrification. While no artist himself,
he nonetheless gave an artist community cause to work and
play in his new precinct, which he has dubbed Maboneng,
meaning ‘place of light’. Yet what became home to studios
of luminary status artists like William Kentridge, projects
spaces for the Goethe-Institut and the Goodman Gallery,
and stores selling the wares of leading designer Black Coffee
and upbeat label Love Jozi, some began to feel existed as
an island, strangely cut off from the bleak dormitories and
palpable poverty in the area.
But for those who viewed Arts on Main as a place for northern
suburbanites to get a brief fix of the inner city before driving back
to secure townhouses on tree-lined streets, Main Street Life is
due to put a big kink in that perception. Liebmann’s plan was to
always make this a live — as well as play and work — precinct,
and Main Street Life (a short walk from Arts on Main) offers chic
loft-style penthouses, apartments, an art hotel called 12 Decades
with custom-designed rooms by leading SA artists, and further
exhibition spaces and studios — all with the best city views
imaginable.
For Liebmann, Maboneng is not only about inner-city living; he
wants to offer “an alternative lifestyle option for people looking
to live and work in a creative community. The next development
planned (after Main Street Life) complements this vision and will
offer workspaces for businesses operating on the cutting edge
of innovation, for example, alternative energy suppliers and
open-source tech companies. “Creatives have also responded
really well to the communal work and exhibition spaces, and the
collaboration between tenants and owners has already begun,”
he says.
And, much like Arts on Main, the old derelict building held great
appeal for Liebmann. “The area’s historical use as an industrial
area [translates] into high volume ceilings, ideal for a loft
conversion,” says the developer. Other factors that influenced his
decision to incorporate a residential aspect include proximity to
public transport networks, including BRT, Metrobus, trains and
taxis. “A unique mix of retail, industrial, and commercial buildings
in the area,” Liebmann believes, “allows for the residential
component to create a mixed-use environment that is ideal for
creative residents, with proximity to various arts and educational
institutions and the Fashion Precinct.”
Yes, but why Joburg? Why is it worth developing?
“I think Johannesburg has the potential to become one of
the most culturally diverse, vibrant and dynamic cities in the
world and I am passionate about contributing to it fulfilling this
potential.”
PROFILE: PUBLIC INSTALLATIONIST
ARNE QUINZE 18
WORDS:
annelie rode
www.arnequinze.tv
A MESSAGE FOR/FROM THE FUTURE
Arne Quinze is part Tommy Lee, part Bono but without the
sanctimony. He possesses all the qualities of a rockstar: wild, sexy,
rebellious and outrageous; yet his work is erudite and visionary.
Through his art, he constantly challenges himself to find solutions
for a society in peril as it hurtles towards the future.
From wild to wildly successful in less than ten years, Arne has risen from
the streets as graffiti artist to company director and creator of “a world
without borders, literally and figuratively”. He now employs more than
80 people, from architects to urban artists, in headquarters that cover
10 000 square metres in his home country of Belgium. From here he
runs his furniture design company, Quinze & Milan, and Studio Arne
Quinze, the design, architecture and art laboratory that also functions
as gallery, showroom and creative cell for research, urbanology and
communication; the list is continuous.
Primarily, however, Quinze remains an artist, and the freedom that this
successful creative platform has given him has allowed him to create
everything from shoes to gigantic sculptures and even a prototype
Ferrari. He calls his space “super-energetic chaos – we’re a beating
heart”. And it’s with this beating heart that he brings his visions to life.
Arne challenges accepted norms and reigning minimalism, reuniting the
world of art and architecture to a point where they become so visually
exciting and intertwined that they depend on each other for existence.
His work is proof of the essential part art has to play in architecture
because of the power it has to instil emotion and evoke a response. He
deems the modernist terms ‘order’, ‘function’ and ‘form’ to be archaic,
preferring to work under the freer confines of chaos, energy and passion.
18
one small seed
one small seed
19
Arne Quinze gained global recognition for burning his giant installation
‘Uchronia: A Message for/from the Future’ created at the annual Burning
Man festival in 2006. Burning Man is a harmonious temporary society
where around 40 000 inhabitants, or ‘burners’, come together for a week
to celebrate art, music and freedom of creative expression in The Black Rock
Desert in Nevada. The area consists of a dry lake bed in the Great Basin,
an expansive terrain known as a playa. The aim of the festival is to create
a community devoid of dogmatic authority and commercialism, allowing
social structures to develop organically. Essentially, it is a social experiment
in self-governance. The climax of the event is the sacrificial burning of a giant
effigy, the ‘burning man’, at the end of the week to celebrate freedom.
Quinze’s colossal artwork was one of the spectacles at the festival in 2006.
‘Uchronia’ formed a gigantic organic structure gently morphing out of the
surface of the playa, part spacecraft, part mythical beast. It embodied a
giant speech bubble gushing forth from the base of Arne’s creative gut,
representing all that he believes in and simultaneously holding true the ideals
of Burning Man. On closer inspection it was a collision of a million timber
battens put together in a seemingly chaotic manner, 30 metres high and
60 metres wide. The result was awe-inspiring, bringing people from afar
to gather and experience this piece of frozen chaos. The behemoth held its
breath with the past, and it exhaled the future.
With technology developing at an ever-increasing trajectory, Arne believes that
as we evolve through time we are either being left behind or blown away, and
our delicate social structures are being dissolved in the process. He believes
we cannot survive alone and need to find solace in each other through new
ways of coming together. In his work he aims at creating an environment
through which we can converge and engage in dialogue. The masses of
entangled timber battens sculpted together breathe their interconnectedness
onto the viewers. The scale creates an overwhelming space under which
thoughts are reset and individuals become a united community once again.
The volatile structures “take the viewers on a voyage that transcends space
and time and offers us a glimpse of what can be expected of the myriad of
mutagens awaiting us”.
Similar themes run though all of Arne’s work. ‘Cityscape’ created a similar
intervention on a smaller scale, reviving a neglected neighbourhood in
Brussels. ‘The Sequence’, also in Brussels, represented a physical connection
between two neighbours, the Flemish parliament and the House of
Representatives. Smaller offsets are now happening all over the world. All
the timber used in his installations is recycled or counterbalanced by the
planting of new trees.
Arne is driven by a belief in the realisation of an idealistic society in which we
are allowed to accelerate with the times, are free to express ourselves, and
“all individuals are communicating and interacting” as equals. He ultimately
dreams of creating a city from scratch, allowing his philosophies to filter
through from the ground up. I happened to be at Burning Man the year of
‘Uchronia’ and have first-hand experience of the impact of these ideals so I
know them to be true. Arne Quinze has my vote for mayor of the future. Hell,
let’s make that president.
IMAGES:
courtesy of michael shevel, johan conradie and brusselspictures.com
one small seed
21
FEATURE: LOCAL DESIGN I CONSCIOUS DESIGN
WORDS:
he fairytale is over. Gone are the days when the princess only
flew business class and the handsome prince waited in his V8
to whisk her off to that fabled South Beach hotel, the one that was
envisioned by Marcel Wanders. The careless joy they had skipping
from Maison et Objet to Art Basel, maxing out credit cards, buying
a perfect life.
The environment has been begging for mercy for generations
but we are only responding now that our designer handbags
are unaffordable. We should have seen the signs when the most
coveted piece of art was a diamond-encrusted scull. Death through
decadence. The designer life has finally cost the world too much.
Yet the woes of the times need not foretell a barren future for design.
They should herald a renaissance. We are the architects of our own
demise but this could be our saving grace; as soon as we create an
imbalance, we become acutely aware of it and work at rebalancing
it. In this balancing act, we become truly creative.
Value in design now lies in how our consciousness is articulated.
Words like ‘sustainability’, ‘recycling’ and ‘green’ have quickly
become ubiquitously misused consumer catchphrases to hide
behind. Essentially, a move away from consumerism is our greatest
challenge. The awareness is there, but it’s a reality we’re trying to
avoid. Ultimately, we have to face the question of what this shift in
awareness implies for design.
The answer, I believe, lies in our own backyard. Consciousness
of our environment and what it can teach has become the most
valuable asset for designers today. We need to return to our own
roots, reuse the resources we find there and, only as a last resort,
recycle what we can find no other use for.
annelie rode
In developing countries, design is born from necessity. Economy
of means is the framework and local craftsmanship is the art. Add
heritage to this paradigm and you have the tools for ingenious
design. Being blessed enough that our backyard is Africa can only
mean inspiration and great design.
Having African roots with such diverse cultural, political and artistic
influences bestows us with a unique design-oriented identity to tap
into. It gives us a consciousness embedded in heritage, aware of
space and functionality, cautious with resources, and blessed with
exceptional craftsmanship.
In the following pages we have a selection of a new guard of
designers whose roots all exist here in South Africa. Here, where
they have leant that nothing should be taken for granted, that
everything has the potential for positive change. Here, where we’re
aware that design can be decidedly conscious and nonetheless,
deliciously decadent.
We’ve made our focus ‘conscious design’, and by this we mean
not just eco-conscious, but conscious in a more encompassing
sense. LIV Design, who we feature a little later on, put it well: “To
us, this means design that acknowledges human beings through
job creation; design that is sensitive towards culture and its local
community; design that makes economic sense and that considers
the impact it has on our planet by the reusing and rethinking of
waste and materials.”
Design is a crucial factor in the lives of human beings and needs to
be viewed with status in its own right, not subordinated to the arts or
sciences. Design has shaped our world and can be used to reshape
it. This realisation is the first step in what conscious design is all
about. The ones that follow can take a wealth of possible forms,
because of the limitless creativity of the individual who consciously
designs them. The following showcase presents just a sample of
such individuals. Individuals who, as designers, are conscious in all
the most important ways. Be inspired.
BORN FREE RANGE
www.ryanfrank.net
RYAN FRANK
Lauded internationally as an eco-designer to keep an eye on, Ryan
claims it was not a conscious decision to become a sustainable
designer but a natural progression. He’s always been drawn
to materials that inspire him and has an innate respect for the
environment. This modest attitude towards his origins, and the
realisation that the resources they make available to us should be
respected, has garnered Ryan top accolades across the globe. Now
living and working in East London in the UK, this respect has become
a philosophy that the designer carries through all aspects of his life.
He insists that in our current climate, design must live by these
principles. “It must try not to fuel consumerism; if designers can
design products that speak of longevity, durability, and timelessness,
this will address a vital issue in our current ‘throw-away’ culture.”
Ryan tells us about the project that sparked his rise as a respected
sustainable designer, his notorious ‘Hackney Shelf’ (see page 10):
“When I moved to London, a city with history and stories, the
worn, derelict, rusted, chipped and scratched buildings were a big
inspiration. I wanted to capture these layers of dirt and graffiti that
had built up over time, and so I did it with the ‘Hackney Shelf’.
The project involved installing whiteboards at graffiti ‘hot-spots’
around East London. The concept was to present a blank canvas to
the public. And they attracted a variety of illicit city activities. Once
covered in graffiti, they were removed and transformed into mobile
shelving units, bringing London streets indoors.”
Working as a furniture designer, he calls his creations “edgy freerange furniture”. “Edgy”, he says, in the “experimental, cheeky,
uniqueness that I try to include in my work,” and “free-range” in the
sustainability that’s “built into the pieces as a standard”.
Ryan is adamant on the point of sustainability. “I am convinced there
are currently enough materials in our world, for us to re-use, recycle,
reclaim and remake the products we need. It’d be great if we could
really slow down on creating virgin plastics, cutting down trees,
or mining more minerals, and focus our attentions on reusing the
resources already in use.”
After the unprecedented success of this product, Ryan’s career was
pretty much formulated.
Subsequent projects cemented his acclaim with products such as
‘Inkuku’ and ‘Shanty’ that point directly to his South Africanness. His
‘Inkuku’ chairs adopt the technique of local craftsmen in townships,
who create quirky chickens out of colourful plastic bags. ‘Shanty’
is a standing lamp mounted on corrugated iron that doubles as
a room divider. Inspired by shanty towns in Jo’burg, Ryan creates
this industrious construction out of waste from London building
sites. Both items use relatively simple techniques and a fairly
straightforward formula: leftover, forgotten or weathered materials,
combined with desire for rebirth through design, to create awardwinning products.
“Underlying rawness”, in Ryan
Frank’s opinion, is the most acutely
African motif that has arisen in his
free-range design. The fascinating
story told by corrosion and the
natural effects of time is one
that resides as a major narrative
throughout his work. We chat to the
Jo’burg-born product designer to
learn the rest of the tale.
Another secret to the formula is that he still sees himself as “100%
South African” and works daily to fuse his heritage with the new
influences he is exposed to.
Next on Ryan’s pioneering agenda is a project to create a giant totem
pole from waste in conjunction with a community of teenagers. He
also has plans to spread his wings further and set up a design studio
in Barcelona (something tells us he misses the sun!). And, we are
happy to hear, he will once again be reinstating his roots, working
on a range of seating with local African communities.
Apart from that, the free-ranger says he’s currently inspired by Dr.
Suess, erosion and tree-houses. We’re looking forward to see what
this could possibly mean for the greater good of design that Ryan
Frank so happily engenders.
inkuku chair
tipsy turvy
THE INTERVENTIONIST
www.animal-farm.co.za
PORKY HEFER
Coming from a successful advertising background, Porky has been
equipped with not only the skills to understand the way people
think, but also how you should bend the rules to make them think.
To accomplish anything that instils positive change, he says you
have to capture someone’s imagination – now! Not surprisingly, the
advertising world was too prescriptive for this radical individual who
doesn’t stand for any proverbial tails trying to wag this dog. So, Porky
broke free from the norm, and established Animal Farm.
Animal Farm is a creative consultancy that provides alternative business
solutions for everything from branding to communication issues as
well as being a place for design collaboration and innovation. His
consciously-designed products have graced many a media page,
such as his adult-sized weaver nest or ‘organic lounger’ (think, ‘pimp
my treehouse’); ‘High Hopes, Big Dreams’, a ‘reuseable’ milkcratecome-stool; and ‘Lite’, pendant lights made from natural plantation
wood and fitted with energy-efficient bulbs.
Porky says he prefers the term ‘reuse’ to ‘recycle’, because ”it’s not
second-hand and kak, it’s still good and useful“.
Porky Hefer’s ideas are so compelling
that they wake him up. Perhaps
because they’re so large that when
they come to cuddle, he’s shoved to
the floor with their force. Or maybe
because they’re so damn exciting
that he has to attack them as soon
as there’s daylight to light his way.
Annelie Rode investigates to discover
what’s under the covers.
the finished highway
He tells us about the urban sculptures of Frank Gehry in Barcelona
and Anish Kapoor in Chicago and we realise just how well largescale, creative interventions can serve to bring about urban renewal.
Porky’s own ideas for regeneration began with an art installation
in the Table Mountain National Park. They progressed to address
more pertinent issues, such as the unfinished highways that cut
through Cape Town’s city centre. Many an urban legend has given a
reason for this blunder, but after 35 years, little has been done. The
National Roads Agency has made it a priority to fix them, but only
by 2012, once the world has seen this ‘minor’ inner-city screw-up!
In the meantime, they will probably just sweep the problem under a
cellphone banner, we suppose.
lite
african giants
Porky’s solution? Turn them into the city’s pride by making them
beautiful. He’s suggested making them look like the ends of a
Scalextric set, transforming the brunt of jokes into something that
not only makes sense visually but financially too. The obvious
question is where funding would come from, and this is where
Porky’s long-term strategy comes into play. He proposes tactically
placing parts of a Scalextric track across the city as advertising
platforms, to contrast to the visual anarchy of billboards. Imagine
the world’s eyes on a city that allows such an intervention that is
beneficial to the population’s psyche.
Another of Porky’s grand schemes to ‘reuse’ is to give the
decommissioned cranes in Cape Town harbour a facelift – literally.
He’s suggested adding giraffe heads to the tops of the cranes,
to create moving light sculptures from the most visibly unused
feature on the city’s skyline. Sadly, the idea has been put on the
backburner as the 2010 FIFA committee fails to understand how
it fits into the theme of a unique African experience. As with many
of his ideas, foresight in governance is greatly lacking. Financiers
only see as far as the bottom line, and if maximum advertising
revenue means minimum expenditure without any ‘greater good’
being achieved, then so be it. Urban spaces go to the highest
bidder and not the most innovative solution. But Porky will keep
on trying as he believes there has to be a beneficial solution for
all of us.
Porky has a wealth of ideas hidden up his sleeve, most too
exciting to mention just yet. One of the reasons they’re so difficult
to execute is that they are just too big to imagine and not tangible
enough. A digital image is too unreal and open to manipulation
to believe, so the paradigm shift is lost on decision makers.
Which is why he’s decided to take a step back to the corporeal
and transportable and create equally wonderful, if not slightly
more producible, products to build up his observers’ faith before
bringing out the big guns.
For now, Porky Hefer deserves the last word:
“Creativity is creating something that represents a new way of
thinking for the new world that we live in; thinking that represents
the complexities that make present behaviour and ideas
obsolete.
So, how can we get together and blow the world apart?”
DESIGN TO LIV FOR
www.2livliv.com
DANIELLE EHRLICH
EWALDI GROVÉ
Danielle Ehrlich and Ewaldi Grové are the effervescent duo
behind LIV Design. Their off-beat designs exude their excitable
energy, but what’s not quite as blatant, are the conscious choices
made with every aspect of their designs. And by conscious, we
don’t just mean thought-out, we mean serious saving-theplanet kinda stuff. Binding the pair is “a shared passion for
things beautiful, colourful, friendly, conscious and original”.
These ladies are all candy-coated exterior, but don’t expect a
squishy centre. We took a peek inside and found nothing but
rock solid principles. When it comes to design, they are serious
about making a difference.
Finding new materials to utilise is an adventure as they comb
through waste to discover hidden gems that they can endow with
new use and meaning. Thus, the pair often starts where other
manufacturing processes end. They prefer to work with materials
with very little use, which normally would end up as garbage in a
landfill. “Not everything needs to be recycled in order to be green;
reusing material in its existing form is an alternative sustainable
route that reduces the carbon footprint of processing.” We see
this principle realised in their soft furniture range aptly titled ‘Lil’
Landfills’ that are made with offcuts from the clothing industry.
Their method of production is another key to LIV’s design ethos.
They manufacture all objects by hand as it not only reduces their
carbon footprint, but also supports local industry by creating jobs.
They approach local craftsmen and rather than introduce them to
a foreign skill, they prefer to develop their existing ones to produce
innovative work that maximises both parties’ potential. Pieces
like their popular ‘AfroDutch Chest of Drawers’ and ‘Growing
Chandelier’ for example are handmade by local wire crafters. By
fusing street skill with clever design they not only create desirable
objects, but opportunities that offer hope.
LIV’s work also speaks of a respect for heritage and celebrates
forgotten styles and neglected skills. Their adaptation aims
to restore some of our former glory and hopes to instil subtle
nostalgia. The ball-and-claw motif common to furniture prolific
in old South African homes is clearly evident in their ‘AfroDutch
Chest of Drawers’. They also dared a revival of crochet in their
‘Crochet Creature’ seats.
LIV aims to be a lifestyle and not just a product; their good
intentions don’t just stop at design. They are religious carpoolers
and plan the most efficient routes to their destinations.
“Being a designer in a world that needs to go green is a 21st century
design conundrum,” they reflect. “How can one create more in a
world where there is already enough? The challenge is to make sure
that the products replacing existing models are conscious and creative
contributors.”
What makes them tick? “Ordinary things. But questioning why
the thing is viewed with grey lenses and turning the volume up,
tweaking it, adding an element of surprise and transforming it into
something fresh and sexy but still celebrating its original purpose
and familiarity… Blending into unexplored territory. Mingling
in the heart of the city centre. Running through natural forests.
Rummaging through waste in industrial areas. Sharing ideas and
a cup of coffee with a stranger.”
LIV contemplates the quandary presented by the issue of sustainability
for designers in this particularly eco-conscious age. “Are sustainable
designers also responsible for reclaiming and recycling of the existing
products that are being replaced? At which point do we intercept and
how deep do our responsibilities go?”
alfie lamp
These issues of responsibility are clearly at the heart of their mission
when it comes to design. “We aim towards urban sustainable design.
To us, this means design that acknowledges human beings through
job creation; design that is sensitive towards culture and its local
community; design that makes economic sense and that considers
the impact it has on our planet by the reusing and rethinking of waste
and materials.”
growing chandelier & retro afrodutch
Who said responsibility can’t be fun? LIV’s fervent dedication is
paying off. Apart from receiving numerous design awards, they’ve
recently been approached by Twiice International/Design Faktorii
to collaborate in design that will focus on promoting South African
designers internationally. We look forward to see how a touch of
the LIV goodness will influence the international arena.
“ENOUGH DESIGN FOR DESIGN’S SAKE.”
www.liammooney.co.za
LIAM MOONEY
Confident and outspoken, emerging
designer and co-founder of Whatiftheworld
/ Design studio, Liam Mooney, is not
precious about anything nor does he want
to set anything in stone. Although he
claims he is always contradicting himself,
he is remarkably clear in knowing what he
wants and what good design means to him.
Annelie Rode catches up with him as he
cuts to the chase.
In 2008, Liam launched a range called
Proletariat, which consists of items made from
reused and found materials. This doesn’t exactly
make him an eco-crusader, but his aesthetic
plainly speaks of an environmental awareness
and the importance of waste. But not just
waste that refers to leftovers from gluttonous
consumption but also aesthetic waste due to
avaricious over-decoration. ”Enough of this
‘mega design’ stuff, enough of Art equals
Design. Call me old-fashioned but something
designed needs to be functional,” stresses Liam.
“And the whole ‘function of design is beauty’
argument is weak. Enough design for design’s
sake. Enough gigantism. I think the most vital
issue of all, for myself at least, is that I remember
what is really important. Of course any project
will always involve a series of compromises, but
I would like to know at the end of it all, that the
process was conscious and considered.”
the mensch bench
Liam holds quite strong views on the individuality of design. He firmly
believes that we, as South Africans, are not exempt from having to deal
with all matters out there around creating good design. “You need
to carry on doing what you do, only do it better,” he says. “Although,
determining what’s ‘better’ is getting a little more complicated.” For
him, “vernacular manufacturing techniques and local materials” will
inevitably inform design wherever you might find yourself.
When I ask Liam how he thinks design will be
affected by the global recession, he says that
as there will always be money for design, the
customer will just become shrewder. Instead
of the cheap and expendable, they will want
to know that their products are going to last
and age well. He joins the collective designer
conscious in the belief that we need to cut back
on excess but not on quality ideas; something
that seems to have been entrenched in his
philosophy from the start.
In his latest project, he has reappropriated used wine barrels from the
Backsberg Estate in Stellenbosch to create his new furniture range.
The barrels are crafted from French oak, used for the vanilla, butter
and spice flavours they impart to wine during the maturation process.
However, the French oak takes about 200 years to mature before they
can be used to make barrels that only have an average lifespan of
five years. He’s hoping to extend the longevity of this beautiful wood
before (as he so appropriately puts it) ”it dies a potplant death”.
the little desk that could
mechano coffee table
Currently, he finds himself sharing studio space with some fashion
designers and he admits to a couple of stolen moments larking about
with their fabric. As the interview ends, he mentions that he has ideas
for some ”pretty crazy upholstery” in store. This new range is sure to
expose us to the softer side of Liam Mooney.
FEATURE: ARCHITECTURE
FAT ARCHITECTS 28
Islington Square, an eco-housing development by FAT,
screams fake! The architecture proudly boasts faux Dutch
façades with phoney windows on non-existent levels.
Juliet balconies and other imitative motifs like little hearts
and crosses adorn the frontage. And it is not even in
the Netherlands, it is in east Manchester in the UK. But
although these flighty façades raise the middle finger at
convention, they actually embody a surprisingly profound
benevolence that is not so apparent at first sight.
The area now known as New Islington (previously
Cardroom Estate) was once a dire and depressing
council estate where monotonous townhouses replaced
bleak tower blocks built over slums. The area had lost
its will to live. Now, after the intervention of a couple of
wayward architects, the area and its happy residents are
ready to take on the world. One might wonder why rightminded architects would copy elements, symbols and
styles, and deliberately parade them on what should be a
sombre and ‘tasteful’ façade. Well, according to them, it
has everything to do with taste.
F ashion A rchitecture Taste
Fashion architects FAT are fake on the outside, but oh-so-original where it
really counts. The eco-conscious postmodernists are turning heads around
the globe, on a relentless mission to speak to people’s hearts. ANNELIE RODE
listens in to what they have to say.
PHOTOS:
28
one small seed
fashion architecture taste (FAT) ltd, james white & paul adams
Founded in 1995 by Sean Griffiths and Sam Jacob (and
later joined by Charles Holland), the architecture firm FAT
started off by taking a jab at a profession they felt had
been up its own arse for far too long. While the team
may enjoy a touch of tomfoolery, they do not suffer fools
easily. And so through art, research and anthropological
interest, FAT has built up its image as a firm that holds
social, cultural and urban development in high regard.
Their name itself even challenges the conventional
orthodoxy of design, particularly in the matter of taste. FAT
is an acronym for Fashion Architecture Taste. They dispute
the common belief that good taste and good design is
one and the same thing, and that ‘good taste’ is generally
prescribed by the educated middleclass. Their populist
approach proposes that good taste is not in the eye of
the educated beholder, magazine editor, or architect for
that matter, but in the eye of the end user. Hence taste
is subjective to the bottom line; it is descriptive of the
individual subject and it will evoke varying emotions.
This leaves good design as simply equating to design
that functions foremost, and taste as the added separate
element that makes design personal.
FAT’s approach at Islington Square and in other projects
always puts the occupants’ desires first. The initial plan for
Islington Square proposed a chic modern development,
but the people wanted something more traditional: a
house with a garden — not necessarily outdated, just
something they could relate too. And it is this essential
relationship that architects often forget about; people
have to relate to the spaces that were designed for them.
FAT are compelling architects to readdress these issues of
how occupants use and relate to their environment. And if
they have a bit of fun while they are doing this, why not?
The profession really does need to lighten up.
Hoogvliet Heerlijkheid
FAT’s ideologies are strongly rooted in Postmodernist
architectural thought.
A mini modern architecture history guide for those unfamiliar
with the styles:
Modernism:
Modernism rebuked the overt decorations of previous eras,
calling them superfluous, and focussed instead on pure
functionality, stripping elements to their bare minimum and
using materials in their natural state. Buildings were stark,
geometric, devoid of any metaphor and had no roots in history
or context. In other words: somewhat anal-retentive.
Modernist icon Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said: “Less
is more.”
So FAT created wordclass living spaces that addressed all the residents’ safety
and comfort needs, with expressive façades that communicate and evoke a
sense of pride and belonging to the area. They specifically looked at the
way the residents adorned their grim and grey façades with decoration in
the previous estate to personalise and liven up the area, thus adapting their
environments to their tastes. FAT believe that façades and other visual methods
of decoration should be used to communicate the intent of a building, and to
evoke a feeling of nostalgia and belonging. And this is achieved by making
references to familiar (or pop) iconography or elements from the past that the
residents can understand.
Another of FAT’s delightful projects is The Sint Lucas Art Academy — this
one actually in the Netherlands in the Dutch town of Boxtel. The Academy
was once a technical design school in an unremarkable 1960s building —
until FAT came along and pimped it out. The pseudo-gothic icing on the
façade is meant to engage with the community, speaking not only of a distant
past but also employing motifs that are decidedly pop. Tongue in cheek,
Griffith explains: “All the students were goths! So we thought we’d give them
an appropriate backdrop.” Jokes aside, not only did this facelift uplift the
schools standing, but through intelligent architectural planning they brought
a previously disjointed building together — creating a functioning community,
proud of their creative culture. The project was awarded a RIBA European
Award in 2007.
A final development we can’t go without mentioning is Hoogvliet Heerlijkheid,
also in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam. We know the beautiful word heerlijkheid
quite well in Afrikaans, but it’s not so easily translated into English; for our
purpose let’s just call it enjoyment. And that is exactly what FAT hoped to instil
in the community of a new neighbourhood in the Dutch town, Hoogvliet. Built
in the middle of a community park, the eccentric stylised façade of Hoogvliet
Heerlijkheid not only represents a new civic identity but also relates to the past.
A timber rain-screen is reminiscent of the town’s industrial past, the stylised
trees pay their due to the natural environment and the ‘cut-outs’ refer to the
rural past of the area. And the pink? Well, that’s a piece of FAT: the architects
who create the electric shock that puts the heartbeat back into the community.
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one small seed
“Less is a bore.”
— robert venturi
Postmodernism:
Postmodernism rebuked the overt minimalism of Modernism,
calling it pseudo-intellectual, austere and alienating, and
focussed instead on using metaphor to relate buildings to the
people inhabiting them. Buildings are rooted in semiotics.
They are expressive, flippant and personal and draw heavily
on heritage and context. In other words: considerate and
courageous, and a little outrageous.
Postmodernist icon Robert Venturi answers back: “Less is a
bore.”
The smallest unit within any given culture is the language of
its symbols and icons; these are comprehensible elements that
stir up basal emotion and often nostalgia. The postmodernist
architect believes this can be used to translate meaning and
intent into a particular space. The most obvious aspect of
architecture in which to incorporate this semiotic language is
upon façades, which have for centuries been used to create
more expressive, often decorative buildings. At the same time,
this approach restores craftsmanship to the profession. Venturi
calls it the “decorated shed”.
Postmodernists argue that this is a much more honest form
of building as it acknowledges the mess and chaos of the
modern world, which the Modernists attempted to edit out.
So, by way of semiotics, architecture comes to speak of a past,
a context and of a people — those who actually inhabit the
place. It also intends to provoke a reaction, which, says FAT, is
exactly what architecture should do.
www.fashionarchitecturetaste.com
Saint Luca
Islington Square
PHOTOS: paul adams (top) & james white (bottom)
“Taste was a way into some
of the quite political issues
that have driven us over the
years, which is to do with why
a certain kind of — dare I say
— Guardian-reading middleclass person has an almost
exclusive role in determining
what is good design. We’ve
always actively worked outside
of that.”
— sean griffiths, FAT architect
The BAPE Kids store in Harajuku
has a banana play pit in place of a
ball pit and has coloured lights in
each façade that correspond with the
ranges inside.
FASHION: INTERNATIONAL CLOTHING BRAND
A BATHING APE
monkey business?
How the fashion label A Bathing Ape, or BAPE (pronounced ‘bay-pee’ for
you troglodytes who aren’t familiar with these simian motifs and camo-print
surfaces), went from underground street gear to global empire has a lot to
do with the tricky combination of street cred, mass appeal and the height of
exclusivity. ANNELIE RODE finds out more.
photography by brandon shigeta
A Bathing Ape was created in 1993 by the reclusive thenfashion student and DJ Tomoaki ‘Nigo’ Nagao, who sought
to elicit the desire of every youngster: the desire to attain
the unattainable and become part of the in-crowd. Nigo
started out selling t-shirts featuring allusions to his favourite
sci-fi classic, Planet of the Apes. Soon obscure references
to apes and slogans like ‘Ape Shall Never Kill Ape’ became
the badge of the ultra-cool on the streets of Tokyo. BAPE
has since become a pop culture powerhouse that includes
27 (and counting) stores worldwide, cafés, a music label,
hair salons, and even talk of a BAPE hotel.
One of Nigo’s smartest tactics has been producing apparel
in extremely limited stock. All ranges, graphics and logos
are limited edition. Patrons are only allowed to purchase
one item, which must be in his or her personal size. This
is supposedly to evade the looming counterfeit trade, yet it
actually inflames it. The fraudulent frenzy has invigorated
the brand name’s prevalence, in both its original form and
as fake reproductions — also known as ‘Fapes’.
BAPE stores are hard to find; trading under the name
‘Nowhere Co., Ltd.’, they are never signposted. Occasionally
a sublime ape head is visible, or some trademark only BAPE
aficionado will know. The Hong Kong store is so exclusive
customers have to make an appointment. Not surprisingly,
steady supporters of BAPE are among the rich and famous,
including the likes of Pharrell, Jay-Z and The Beastie Boys.
Nigo threads his design and marketing concepts through
every facet of his brand from the shoelaces to the
architecture — with the signature ape head and camouflage
print on everything from caps to stationery to store façades.
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one small seed
Beyond this, and blowing the urban hype sky-high, is the
creative faith Nigo put in architect Masamichi Katayama
and his Tokyo firm, Wonderwall, who have designed all
BAPE stores since 1998. Nigo gave the architect carte
blanche, and, with Masamichi’s track record of creating the
hottest retail design for stores from Fred Perry to Uniqlo,
the pair was set for the iconic. Together they have pushed
all boundaries to create environments that all-but teleport
you into the world of an MTV music video; one in which you
are the star.
Katayama’s original design approach draws on the
counterculture of Japanese youth. “The act of making a
purchase alone is not satisfying enough,” he explains. “It
has to be an experience.” According to Katayama, shopping
is to the Japanese what a holiday is to Westerners: “It’s like
taking a little trip somewhere and has the power to change
lives. Japanese are very happy when they shop.”
Design elements that accentuate the BAPE world range
from multicoloured LED staircases to the distinctive camo
print that filters through the décor — in neon lights, on
wallpaper and on carpets. Merchandise is slotted between
acrylic panels so it appears to hover. Other gimmicks include
canning t-shirts and displaying them in fridges. The lighting
design is extraordinary, with fittings in all shapes, sizes,
colours and materials. Subliminal branding is everywhere.
Make it into this inner sanctum, and you have unquestionably
reached the uppermost echelon in the planet of hip.
The irony is that ‘A Bathing Ape’ loosely translates into
Japanese as the denunciation of the youth’s complacency
in blindly following the hip and trendy. Exactly what Nigo
and Katayama so cunningly exploit to turn this brand into a
global pop culture phenomenon.
www.bape.com
62
If you’ve bought BAPE in South Africa, be warned that it is probably a Fape! SA
hasn’t quite reached the inner sanctum yet.
Unfortunately, targeting by counterfeiters goes with the territory of making it as
a designer label these days. BAPE hasn’t been really prominent worldwide until
recently, so only a select few can tell a BAPE from a fake. Check out BAPE’s
website for a whole section dedicated to spotting a Fape. Here are just some of
the ways to differentiate:
HOW TO SPOT A FAPE
1. The sleeve tag of a BAPE should be centred — any tag on the back or front
indicates a fake.
2. BAPE only uses the most vibrant colours and the fabric should be pulled
tight; if it is loose or dull it is not authentic.
3. The inside lining should feel like cotton, not fleece. They feel very similar so
if you aren’t sure, don’t buy it.
4. The stitching is practically flawless on originals; it may have a loose thread
or two, but if the inside needlework is poorly done you’ve found a fake.
5. Most BAPEs (except the Baby Milo line) have silver zips. The zip should say
YKK on the back. If not, you’ve just found yourself an original Fape.
64
one small seed
In Bapexclusive in
Aoyama the stairway
linking the two floors
changes colour and has a
conveyor belt of sneakers
surrounding it.
DEPARTMENTS: WORDS BY ANNELIE RODE (AR) & JESSICA MANIM (JM)
IN STORE
DUREX PLAY ‘VIBRATIONS’
SWING – LEATHER
Durex has brought a quiver and kink to a supermarket near you. You can
surreptitiously slip this nifty little gadget in between the milk and the bread
as you head to the till; what you slip it onto later, however, is up to you. The
new ‘Vibes’ collection from Durex guarantees good vibrations for up to 40
minutes. The range is waterproof, reusable, and can – and should – be used
with a condom. Alone or with your lover, they’re sure to hit the spot every
time. (AR)
by Egg Designs
www.eggdesigns.co.za
www.durex.com
NIKE ‘CAPE/BURG’
‘BUG’ ROUND SIDE TABLE
by Egg Designs
www.eggdesigns.co.za
A new edition to the Nike Air Max 1 campaign, Cape/
Burg illustrates how a selected group of local artists,
musicians and athletes run the streets of their cities.
Printed on 100% recycled paper, the pages are split
in half to create an unusual flip-book experience.
Insightful interviews, stunning photographs and juicy
tidbits (like pull-out postcards) means this limited
edition book provides hours of enjoyment. (JM)
www.nikesportswear.com
TROLL CHAIR
by Lund & Paarmann
www.designisagoodidea.com
PAPERCRAFT 1:1 AK47 ASSAULT RIFLE
Available at Bibilioteq
www.biblioteqbooks.com
‘ILLUSION’ SIDE TABLE
‘WOOFERS’ SPEAKER SET
They won’t eat your slippers or bring you the paper, but your neighbours might still
complain about these Woofers. Dutch designer Sandra Mulder intended the pun
when she turned man’s best friend into functional kitsch, as their bark is certainly
bigger than their bite. Available as a co-axial speaker system (two dogs) that can
be added to your existing sound system. (AR)
www.designisagoodidea.com
8
one small seed
This is no smoke and mirrors act but rather a cleverly
crafted side table. Handmade using 3mm acrylic,
designer John Brauer used the structural strength from
folding the material to form these magical creations.
Each piece is one-of-a-kind and they’re available in a
variety of colours. (AR)
www.designisagoodidea.com
one small seed
9
designed to save a shitty world:
THE PEEPOO BAG
beyond ORIGINAL
saving the world through hope:
THE AID PACKAGE FOOTBALL
Children in war-torn or
poverty-ravaged areas of the
world do not have access to
much, not to mention toys;
and as such, hope is easily
lost. South Korean designers
Unplug Design created this
concept soccer ball, which is
printed on the containers of
aid packages. Children can
build their own soccer balls
out of the leftover cardboard
cylinders. The packages
thus bring more than just
essential nutrition; they bring
a glimmer of hope and a
chance to escape from dire
circumstances.
This design takes on an issue many in the
first-world only have to flush away and
never think about again: shit. There
are approximately 2.6 billion people
worldwide lacking proper sanitation.
One child dies every 15 seconds
due to contaminated water. This bag is placed in a
disused container that can then be used as a toilet.
It not only sanitises the faeces, but breaks it down,
turning it into compost. Design from the bottom up
will save the planet.
The word ‘original’ has so many
manifestations. Some may argue that
nothing is original anymore — how
could it be, as almost everything
today has its origins in something
else. So we have taken the view that
in contemporary design, originality
signifies something that sparks with
your personal opinions or tastes. It
is more than just objects that make
you go ‘Wow!’ or ‘Why didn’t I think
of that?’; original objects are those
that imprint somewhere on the back
of your mind and cause you to see
things in a different light. Thoughts,
designs and creations might all be
rooted in the same origins, but their
impact changes the trajectories of
our existence into something quite
unique.
WORDS: annelie rode
undercover original:
MANGA ORMOLU
Manga has never taken itself that seriously on the
surface, but we know that it has a darker past (it
has roots in Japan’s British Occupation period).
Brendan Lee Tang uses manga to address sociocultural issues through ceramics, which have
been labelled ‘smashups’. His work as a
whole looks at the tension between beauty
and how it cannot always mask the tragic
and uncomfortable elements in our
life. He uses satire to create a point of
access that mirrors our everyday life,
to see that no amount of decoration
can hide the truth. The Manga
Ormolu series combines elements
of traditional Chinese Ming Dynasty
vessels with Japanese techno-pop art
in an exploration of globalisation.
original design, now original green:
PHILIPPE STARCK
In 2008 Philippe Starck, the visionary behind
some of the most iconic designs of our era,
proclaimed: “Design is dead… everything I
designed was unnecessary…and I am ashamed
of the fact.” Well, maybe he has a point as those
alien orange juice squeezers didn’t really work,
although they were very pretty. And the ghost
chairs have since littered quasi-chic restaurants
the world over. He is now turning his creative
genius towards energy consumption and has
produced the first (attractive) wind turbine for
domestic use. Design is obviously not dead; it
just grew a conscience.
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one small seed
fashionably original:
MOJITO SHOE
Architect Julian Hakes studied the structure of high-heeled shoes and realised the
foot naturally spans and supports the distance between the ball of the foot and the
heel, therefore the rest of the shoe is superfluous. So he aimed to reduce the common
‘garden-variety’ high-heel to its bare structural and material necessities. The result is this inspired swirl.
The design consists of a single piece of carbon fibre that wraps around the foot, supporting it in all
the essential spots. It is sandwiched between an inner leather layer and an outer rubber sole. Named
after its resemblance to the lemon swirls in mojitos, it’s sure to make you the centre of attention at any
cocktail party.
one small seed
67
originally deceptive I:
FADEOUT CHAIR
Japanese company Nendo are known for
their ingenious designs. This chair is from
their Ghost Story range. The
acrylic piece, called the Fade
Out Chair, is painted with a
wood grain that fades into
transparent legs, making it look
like it ghoulishly hovers above
your floor.
innovative architects:
GAGE/CLEMENCEAU
resourceful reinvention:
YOAV AVINOAM
Gage/Clemenceau have taken the principles of Postmodernism and used all the modern technology
available to them to “reinvigorate the way that architecture resonates with people”. Through digital
programming and with laser-cut precision they are changing the face of architecture for good. Working
in symbiosis with technology, they are bringing craft back to the profession in a way that we have not
yet experienced. The company broke into the scene in 2009 with their first large-scale project: a gigantic
10-metre-tall heart in New York City entitled Valentine to Times Square. Aesthetic 3D sensations that will
make your heart skip a beat.
Yoav Avinoam handcrafted this table
from sawdust shavings mixed with resin.
The resin-sawdust mixture is laid into a
mould and then the legs are pressed
in, creating a seamless product. Most
of the sawdust used in creating the
tabletop is the result of cutting the legs.
Great economy of means, as not even
the by-product is wasted.
multifunctional furniture:
10-UNIT SYSTEM
Designed for the One Chair is Enough exhibition,
Shigeru Ban’s ‘10-Unit System’ proved that one
chair can indeed be enough. A modular system
of L-shaped units, the parts can be used in
a multitude of permutations to create chairs,
benches and tables in a variety of lengths.
It is easy to assemble and requires minimal
storage space as you can take it apart completely.
It is made from a combination of 100 percent
recycled paper and plastic composite. Simply
original.
originally deceptive II:
X-RAY VISION TABLE DESIGN
If you position yourself at a specific angle from this table, its inner-workings
become apparent through an x-ray-like paint technique. It is the first product
in a range by Jesse Hernick that aims to elucidate the reality of the object
to the viewer in terms of materials, manufacturing and use. Not only does it
make you aware of the effort and thought that goes into production, but it
is also novel in its approach to tickling your curiosity.
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one small seed
creative growth:
peculiar party animal:
MOSS CARPET
LES ESPRITS DES BOIS (SPIRITS OF THE WOODS)
The moss carpet from Nguyen La
Chanh brings the outdoors indoors
with this unconventional bathmat.
Maintenance is minimal as the moss
thrives on humidity, making your
bathroom the perfect micro-climate.
A little mat that makes you aware of
water usage and that every last drop
can be recycled.
Marcel Wander is known for creating wonder and intrigue with anything his wand
touches. He has created these candlestick holders and vases in honour of the
humble forest deer. The polished stainless steel deer, with engraved crystal vases
and votive holders, were designed for an exclusive Baccarat crystal range.
Although simple, they feel like they are suspended in motion and that they will
come alive at any second. Elegant party animals, just like their owners.
one small seed
69