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Cape Town World Design Capital 2014
The “Live Design, Transform Life” tour, Cape Town
A seven day package (with optional five day Johannesburg add­on)
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“The World Design Capital Cape Town 2014 is an opportunity to understand how integral design is
in our everyday lives and how we can use it as a tool to support the changes we would like to see in
our homes, schools, neighbourhoods, city and country... Design is the enabler through which we
can re­imagine our city, and improve the lives of its citizens.“
With design as the guide, this seven day World Design Capital travel package journeys deeply into
the multiplicity of facets the make up the city of Cape Town, and explores how design has shaped
our city and our lives, and how it can and is shaping our future.
The journey is built, loosely, around the four key themes of the World Design Capital bid, with a
range of experiences bringing them to life:
African innovation
Global conversation ­ African ideas that speak to the world
Beautiful things
Inspiring architecture, interiors, food, fashion, jewellery, craft, art and creativity
Today for tomorrow
Sustainable solutions for people and planet
Bridging the divides
Design that connects our city and communities
Across the World Design Capital Cape Town 2014 year there will be six signature events. These
are the events that each WDC designate is required to stage. These are
Design Week Forum, 30 November 2013
Programme Launch, 1 December 2013
Design Gala, 26 February 2014
Design House Exhibition, 21 ­ 29 November 2014
Design Policy Conference: 26 ­ 28 November 2014
Convocation Ceremony, 30 November 2014
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This package can be adapted and adjusted, for example, to tie in with the Design Policy
Conference, so that a group visiting the city to attend can have a deep off­conference experience.
The other signature events can easily be included in the package.
There will be official events coming out of the citizen submission phase, events either officially
endorsed by or funded by, the World Design Capital programme. These take place between March
and December 2014. These will be announced in the final quarter of the year.
Additionally, there will be many unofficial events, tapping into the buzz around the World Design
Capital.
The World Design Capital travel programme detailed in this document is to designed to be run over
any period of the year, adjusting to whatever programming is available at the time.
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Day1. Arrival day
Airport transfer, check in to hotel, relax!
Afternoon OR evening trip up Table Mountain by cablecar, a lovely way to welcome a guest to the
city.
1900 Welcome African Music Dinner
An African Music Dinner, a private affair at the villa of Alan Grant, on the slopes of Table Mountain,
with a four course traditional local spread, a private concert, and the first opportunity to meet city
designers, who will be invited as special guests.
Dinner takes place across the villa’s various magical spaces, including two courtyards, the dining
room, and the chef’s table.
By the time the day is over, the group will have already made friends in the city, experienced some
of her amazing musical talent, and some of her most exciting flavours.
Day2. Full day, 0900 ­ 1800
City Past. From Camissa the place of Sweet Waters, to Cape Town the apartheid City
Today is a context day. We explore the history of the city, from its indigenous roots as Camissa,
the Place of Sweet Waters, through the origins of Cape Town as a city with the arrival of the Dutch
and the ensuing colonial regimes, to apartheid and up to 1994 and democratic elections. We are
ultimately looking at the history that designed and shaped the city and the policies that determined
the lives of its citizens.
Part1. The Mother on the Mountain
An essential introduction to Cape Town, the Mother City, and an opportunity, from an aerial
perspective at the Foot of Lion’s Head, to map the city’s past, and get a perspective on the
programme for the week.
Part2. Walking tour of the original City
Exploring the origins of the city, with visits including the Slave Lodge, the remains of the original city
reservoir underground in the Golden Acre mall, the original city jetty at the Cape Town Station and
the District Six Museum. The District Six Museum and the theme of forced removals is very
important in the exploration of the city at large and design has fundamentally shaped our present
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and future.
Part3. Cape Malay home lunch
Then it’s lunch time. For lunch, we are going to be hosted in a Bokaap home for a Cape Malay
lunch, home­cooked. We will be introduced to the spices of the city, a sensual journey that is as
much a story about the journey of people to the city, and the design of colonialism and the slave
trade that brought people to the Cape. It’s an opportunity to discover more layers of history, while
sampling fantastic traditional food.
Part4. Robben Island
After lunch, we take the ferry to Robben Island, and follow the threads of apartheid and forced
removals to the island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. It’s an opportunity to explore
apartheid design further, but also the liberation design and notions of how liberation theory was
shaped in South Africa.
After Robben Island, it’s back to the hotel.
The evening is at leisure, with restaurant recommendations.
Optional Tour: The Cape Town Jazz Safari, with dinner included. If there is a design oriented event
taking place, we will include that.
Day3. Full day, 0900 ­ 1800
City Present. 1995 ­ now. Where does the city find itself today
Using the classic Peninsula Route as our sightseeing base, we build our exploration of historical
context ­ the suburbs around the mountain represent the early days of Cape Town, and therefore
the dominant ideologies ­ and also get a fix on how things are changing post 1994. We meet some
designers with interesting takes on the changes, and the changes required. It’s a day of beauty, it’s
a day of contrasts.
Part1. Investment Pavements Weeds
John Bauer is one of the most progressive artists in Cape Town. His technical and political suss
make him a unique individual, and visiting his home is like entering his brain. His work is primarily in
ceramics, and his technique, his ability to extrude design on ceramics is unparalleled. He has
repurposed a Sung Dynasty technique to recreate colours in fantastical ways. On this part of the
journey, to his home in Harfield Village, a site of forced removals, we are hosted by John and given
insight into how design thinking shapes his work as an artist.
http://youtu.be/L5kxEjhTuCc
http://www.modernartistsgallery.com/artistdetails/78_JohnBauer.php
Part2. Grassy Park, the Wetlands Capital of South Africa
Kelvin Cochrane’s project in Grassy Park, a zone classified ‘coloured’ under apartheid, and the
suburb with the most incredible concentration of wetlands, saw a dumping ground on the West
cost of the Zeekovlei transformed into a fynbos paradise that is home to some of the last remaining
fynbos plants. The Bottom Road Sanctuary is a public zone, designed and manifested by citizens,
lead by Kelvin, who sees Grassy Park as the Wetlands Capital of South Africa. Zeekovlei, Princess
Vlei and Rondevlei are all around Grassy Park. On this visit, we meet Kelvin, visit his beautiful home
at the Sanctuary, and learn about a citizen­lead intervention to change how the public views public
space and their role in it.
http://bottomroadsanctuary.co.za/about/
Part3. Lunch at Kalk Bay Harbour
Kalk Bays fishing harbour is a hot aspiration for developers who would love to build a V&A inspired
commercial tourism waterfront. For the moment, the Kalk Bay harbour remains very much a
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working class, fishing harbour, with rustic elements but also some fine restaurants. Our lunch is at
Harbour House.
http://www.harbourhouse.co.za/harbourhouse
Part4. The Penguins that Hated the Cold
Just outside Simonstown live a colony of penguins that hated the cold so much that they migrated
to the (relatively) warm waters of the Indian Ocean of False Bay. They live around the magnficent
Boulders Beach. No trip along the Peninsula is complete without stopping to greet these little
wonders and enjoy one of the city’s finest locations.
Part5. The Cape Point Nature Reserve
This is where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet, it is the southern most point of the Peninsula
(not the most southern point of Africa, that title goes to Cape Aghulas). Within this nature reserve is
an incredible diversity of plant life but also some surprising animal life, including frequent
appearances by ostriches and baboons.
Part6. Return via Kommetjie and Scarborough and Chapmans Peak
This is just the most magnificent sightseeing, following the coast on the Atlantic side from Cape
Point back to the city, via Chapmans Peak, which is one of the world’s greatest mountain passes
(let’s hope it is open), and also via Hout Bay. Hout Bay was originally a forest, hence the Afrikaans
name ‘Hout’, meaning wood. Hout Bay supplied the developing city most of the wood it needed for
building in the early days. It is also a fishing village with a rich fisher history. As a suburb contained
neatly by sea and mountain, it is a place where we can see the South African apartheid design
problem all in one view ­ we can see from anywhere on the hills the traditional plan of white town,
surrounded by black township and coloured ghetto. We will spend a little bit of time here looking at
this design dynamic, set against incredible beauty, and reflect on the possibilities of design that can
take us out of this paradigm.
We are back by between 1800 and 1900.
The night is free, with restaurant recommendations.
Day4. Full day, 0900 ­ 1700
City Present and City Future. The New Centres of Cape Town
The city began below the mountain, as we’ve discovered over the last few days, but it has
expanded terrifically in every direction, especially inland. Today, most of us live outside the original
city. And yet it is still regarded as the centre, even though for most citizens it is the periphery. With
expansion has not come new centres, and one of the key design futures of the city is a recognition
of new centres, and a development approach that seeks to enhance these new centres, putting in
financial resources, transport resources, and thinking differently about how state resources can be
better distributed by moving away from the idea of the original city as the throne.
So today we are going to explore some of the new centres of Cape Town, and look particularly at
how the colonial and apartheid design of the city is slowly being transformed by new approaches.
In each of these centres, we are hosted by people who are driving change.
Part1. The Langa Quarter
Langa was the first township, established in the 1920s by the English colonial government. Today, it
is just about the centre of the metropole, and no longer a peripheral location, far from everything.
As urban geography has shifted around Langa, so Langa has been setting itself up to take
advantage. The Langa Quarter is a citizen social enterprise project designed to establish Langa as
the gateway to the Cape Flats and as a new commercial hub in the city. We meet the creators of
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the project, and tour the Langa Quarter on foot with them, before visiting the original Langa CBD
and looking at the connections.
We also visit the Pass Museum, and gain further insights into issues of restriction of movement
and the power dynamics of space.
Part2. Athlone CBD
Athlone is about 9km east of the original city, across the freeway from Langa. It was designated as
a coloured zone. It incorporates many communities and its CBD has historically been a hub for
coloured citizens living on the Cape Flats. Since 1994 it has struggled to stay relevant, and today
there is a major push to bring new life into the zone. On this part of the visit we meet an architect
working on the Athlone CBD redevelopment project.
Part3. Khayelitsha CBD
Khayelitsha is the fastest growing suburb in South Africa. That we call it is a township is misleading
­ it is a city of some one million people, and a range of economic layers from food­insecure super
poor, to extravagantly wealthy.
The CBD, and its extension through the Khayelitsha Corridor gives a good indication of just how
much resources are being put into Khayelitsha at present, and what the future holds. We will meet
the entrepreneurs behind the thriving Department of Coffee, the first coffee shop in a township in
Cape Town; we’ll visit Harare Square and Hubspace Khayelitsha and look at business development
in the township, and we’ll visit Kuyasa, and see how green energy solutions, applied to low cost
housing, are leading the way in clean energy development in South Africa.
Part4. Bellville
Belville was the heart of the apartheid administration in Cape Town, you will see that in the design
of the buildings there. It is, like Langa, very central in the Metropole. Historically it was a white
Afrikaans suburb, but today, especially around the CBD, it is incredibly diverse, with a strong
pan­African presence. It is a major hub connecting various parts of the city, especially with it’s
central train terminal. It is also a sports hub.
There has been a lot of talk about major urban upgrades for Belville to enhance its economic
opportunity within the city and grow it’s status as a centre point.
We will tour the CBD and get inside the fabric of Belville, hosted by a team of traders, representing
various African countries, working here.
Day5.
Free day
Cape Town is a city so infused with nature, that to rush through without taking a pause to reflect
and enjoy this key element would be to miss the point entirely. And so a day off to just relax and
enjoy the city, to reflect and to have no deadlines or timelines, is a valuable, no ­ essential! ­ part of
the programme.
Day6. Full day, 0900 ­ 1800
City Future. The Innovation Corridor ­ Khayelitsha to Stellenbosch
The R310, running from the coast at Khayelitsha, through to Stellenbosch, represents a corridor of
innovation. There is Kuyasa, the solar project in Khayelitsha. Just outside Khayelitsha there is the
Cape Town Film Studios, one of the most advanced in the world at the moment. Next door is
iThemba Labs, our Hadron Collider, a laboratory for accelerator­based sciences. A little further
down the road is the Lyndoch Eco­Village, and at its centre is the Sustainability Institute. Lyndoch
offers a vision of the future of economically and racially integrated communities, run on renewable
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energy and with all municipal services provided internally. Finally, at the end of the strip, we hit
Stellenbosch, known best for wine in the past, but more and more gaining a worldwide reputation
as the Silicon Valley of Cape Town.
For today’s exploration into modes of innovation in the city, we are going to spend most of our time
on the corridor:
Part1. The Township Winery, Philippi
Just off the corridor, but close enough, and important for its innovation in the wine sector. It is the
first township based winery in South Africa, and is introducing new approaches to wine and wine
culture.
Part2. Cape Town Film Studios OR iThemba Labs
(due to non­disclosure agreements with projects in production, the studios are not always available
for visits)
Part3. Lyndoch eco­village
Part4. Lunch at the Spier Wine Estate’s farm­to­plate restaurant called 8.
Part5. The iShack, Stellenbosch
Part6. Mxit, a visit to South Africa’s biggest social network, created in Stellenbosch
Free evening with restaurant recommendations
OR
Day6. Full day, 0900 ­ 1800
City Future ­ Wine by design
An exploration of the wine region of Cape Town, visiting estates who have introduced bold design
interventions to transform the industry socially, culturally and environmentally.
Visits and tastings would include the Solms Delta wine estate, in Franschoek, whose ownership
model, and indigenisation of the wine estate paradigm, is making a big impact. The Backsberg
Estate, also in Franschoek, is South Africa’s 1st and the world’s 3rd carbon neutral estate. Mhudi
Wines is in Paarl, it is South Africa’s first black owned wine estate ­ in an industry where everybody
else has been doing it for 300 years, how does a newcomer design a new wine paradigm?
And finally we visit a winelands based craft brewery, Cape Brewing Company, whose brewmaster
is a winemaker. Taking wine insights into the beer world, brewing by design.
A lunch exploring indigenous food of the region at the Fyndraai Restaurant at Solms Delta, hosted
by their chef Shaun Schoeman.
Day7. Three quarter day, 1400 ­ 1800
Open Studios Day
A day of meeting designers in many disciplines, in their studios and workplaces. Graphic designers,
industrial and fashion designers, architects, mavericks. Intimate conversations with design heads in
Cape Town
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Farewell dinner party barbeque with invited guests from the week’s programme.
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