Design & Cape Town

When you look around Cape Town, it is a colorful city. They may call it the "Rainbow Nation" for its diversity in language, and race, but its architecture and design is just as colorful. Too often we see in the media all over the world of Africa as a conflict infested country. There are some truths to that, but I want to shed light on the beauty of Africa.

Table Mountain sets the backdrop of Cape Town. Cape Town consists of many little "hip" areas from Bo-Kaap to the Waterfront. Without fail, you will stumble upon a well-designed boutique shop, chic bar, hipster bookstore, or well ambiant coffee shop. It has a touch of Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, and naturally I feel right at home. Speaking of home, it was also unexpected to find a touch of Indonesia, my homeland, that exist here in South Africa. 

As a class, we had a lesson on South Africa and Culture, and due to unexpected circumstances we had our lecture at "The Bank", which is now a "World Design Capital Center" in a type of design district of Cape Town. I was excited of the topic, as design and art is a hidden passion of mine (not a secret now).

Currently there are hundreds of design projects to help the ongoing development of South Africa from sustainable food, education, Business and Innovation, and many others. It was a great insight, and great exposure for those who are not as design savvy of the influence design has on our environment.

In connection, Talib, Andy, and I went to the Cape of Good Hope Castle, which was once used by the Dutch colony for some military purposes I cannot speak much in-depth about, but within this castle there were a few art exhibitions. One being on food and design. The exhibition was intriguing as it covered the evolution of food transport, sustainable food, and food innovation. 

Above is a sculpture made out of recycling containers on sustainable materials in packaging foods, and food overall.

Above is a piece of different methods of packaging from plastic bottles to wine bottles. Time is far too short, as I could spend my hours in this museum alone. That my friends is a little insight of South African design. Keep your eyes open! You never know what you will find.