Cape Town Design Network is coming together for another bring-and-brainstorm session, and you’re invited.
It features 3 design–oriented professionals who will share their views, experiences and insights on a design-led Cape Town.
Iain Harris will speak on ’The Centres of Cape Town' - what if the old city wasn't the centre?"
We chatted to one of the speakers, Iain Harris. Iain runs Coffeebeans Routes, a tour-company-with-a-difference, one “based around the stories of our cities” that uses tourism as an access point to urban economies. “The company also works on interesting music projects from time to time,” his biog states, “most recently Infecting the City Performing Arts Festival.”
Iain’s topic for the gathering at The Field Office, in the Fringe on 31st March 2011 is “’The Centres of Cape Town’ – what if the old city wasn’t the centre?” which he hopes will inspire Cape Town design in 2011. “The city was built on a design brief of separation and isolation,” he comments. “By relooking at our ideas of ‘centre’, by interrogating our language, we can create a design brief that undoes some of this.”
His dreams and hopes for Cape Town city in one sentence? “A city of 24-7 mobility from any part to any part, a smart-wired centre of creativity and innovation where disparity of income and opportunity is long forgotten.”
When it comes to Cape Town Design Network, he’s most excited about the sharing of ideas, stories and resources that create opportunities and innovations. “Such a network makes this possible” he says.
He feels that design can impact on all the city’s culture, creativity and economy issues, “most critically design for dialogue: how do we re-conceive the city in a way that design gets us taking to each other across apartheid design barriers?”
Other speakers :
Y. TSAI (Tsai Design Studio)
Topic : “Small spaces – big ideas“
Tsai heads up Tsai Design Studio, a multi-disciplinary design firm in the field of furniture, interior design and architecture. The accolades and awards from the studio include the prestigious, international Red Dot Award and The British Council’s ‘International Young Design Entrepreneur Award’. The Nested Bunk Beds was voted as the “Most Beautiful Object” in South Africa’ at Design Inbaba 2008.
YEHUDA RAFF (Cape Town Partnership)
Topic : “The Fringe – Cape Town’s Innovation District”
Prior to joining the Cape Town Partnership Yehuda ran a research consultancy. Most recently he has shifted his focus to urban development including involvement in the bid for the rights to redevelop some of Cape Town’s railway stations. He is also the co-ordinator of theCape Town Partnership’s project to redevelop the ‘The Fringe’ into a vibrant hub for innovation, technology and creative industries.
KHALIED JACOBS (Jakupa Architects)
Khalied drives Jakupa’s urban design portfolio and has been responsible for innovations in urban design methodology and practice. Beyond the wide range of development projects he has authored, Khalied has also served as a consultant to UN-HABITAT as an urban planner for the Somalia Development Programme and was a senior lecturer post at UCT’s School of Architecture.
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