Every month Creative Cape Town hosts a Creative Clusters Breakfast at the wonderful Bird Boutique Café (Bree Street), where design practitioners have the chance to share ideas and information in an intimate and informal setting that often sparks creativity and collaboration. We share especially what we are doing with the World Design Capital Bid 2014 and with our East City Design Initiative and create a space for the designers to meet each other.
In May we met with Rory Williams of the engineering, design and planning firm Arup and architects Jackie James of Jonker and Barnes Architects, Mike Scurr of Rennie Scurr Ardendorff and Greg Wright and Greg Scott of Greg Wright Architects.
Jackie is a member of the team working on the LIVE/WORK HOUSING initiative which is part of the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrade (VPUU) project in Harare, Khayelitsha – a cooperative initiative between the City of Cape Town and the German Development Bank aimed at reducing crime and preventing violence. Eight live-work units – comprising ground floor “shop-front” shops or counters with living space above are being built as a pilot.
Rennie Scurr Ardendorff architects have a strong focus on the restoration and conservation of historic buildings and have been involved in the design of The Fugard for Isango Portobello and the restoration of the Sacks Futeran building for the District Six Museum as well as in work on the Drill Hall. These are all buildings in the East City, where Creative Cape Town has been working hard at developing an innovation hub and increasing interest in relevant cultural spaces.
Rory Williams’ work in transport planning focuses on sustainable development and sustainable transport. He was a contributor to the Green Building Council’s Green Star rating system and to the Sustainable Transport and Mobility Handbook, published by Alive2Green. He writes a weekly Cape Times column with architect Mokena Makeka, on urban planning and the influence of design on the use of public space.
Greg Wright Architectsworks mainly on private dwellings on the Atlantic Seaboard in Cape Town but have increasingly been called on to consult on public/private projects in the rest of Africa – where they’re excited by the commitment of private individuals to work with government to unlock potential and impact positively on urban public spaces.
The discussion centred on the East City Design Initiative and the form a design and innovation hub might take, with participants expressing excitement at being included in the future of this precinct. Great ideas for a design competition around the nodes linked to the IRT were also developed for the World Design Capital.
