Art comes home at Spier
The prestigious Southbank architectural competition for a new community development at Spier Estate near Stellenbosch has been won by thread collective and normaldesign. The winners are  a collaborative team of architects, landscape architects and public art practitioners based in Brooklyn, USA. They will develop the project in association with Cape Town-based ACG, whose lead architect is Malcolm Campbell.

The brief generated 96 entries from architects and designers in 35 countries.

Thread collective and normaldesign have already collaborated on projects such as the widely published finalist entry to the World Trade Center memorial competition in New York City and the recently opened Taschen bookstore in New York, in collaboration with Philippe Starck.

The Southbank is a new community development for up to
3 000 people, in which houses will merge with arts production and performance facilities. The entire project will be ecologically designed, from environmentally sensitive building materials to renewable energy sources and recycled water.

One of the key elements of the development will be a R0.5 billion Africa Centre, a multi-disciplinary space for a broad range of art forms including performance art, film, literature, visual art and more, said Africa Centre director Tanner Methvin.

"We want to deconstruct the traditional museum concept and break down barriers between observer and producer," he said. "We aim to push the boundaries of art forms and not have them in silos."

The judges say the winners were set apart by "the integration of the Africa Centre and the residential community", done by positioning key elements of the Centre throughout the housing part of the scheme. "It responded to the aspirations and spirit of the brief: that the Africa Centre gives a character and energy to the community, and that the community in turn contributes to the activities of the Centre."

The site is on the south side of the Eerste River, hence the name "Southbank", within 450ha of land. This comprises 65-80ha of grapes, as well as fallow agricultural land and fynbos and renosterveld. The leisure infrastructure of Spier (155-bed hotel, conference facilities, restaurants and retail outlets) adjoins the site. The Spier wine cellar is to the east, with the Bonte and Eerste Rivers intersecting to the west.

Methvin said the entire development would be submitted for planning approval by the end of the year. Construction should start at the end of 2008.

Whatiftheworld boosts emerging designers
Creative initiative whatiftheworld, which opened the doors to its second gallery at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, Cape Town last August, is creating a platform for greater exposure of emerging and non-mainstream artists.

"Cape Town is home to more and more design-focused events, but awareness of non-mainstream and emerging artists is limited," says co-owner Justin Rhodes. "There is a need for exploration of the urban fringe and the design community that inhabits these spaces. We also want to encourage collaboration with other creative collectives, both local and international, across various disciplines."

Number One – the first in a series of projects and events for emerging designers – included an exhibition of new furniture designs and functional pieces by MURG from Bredasdorp; product design featuring Julie Dieckmann, Gregor Jenkin, Liam Mooney, Heath Nash, Frauke Stegmann and John Vermeulen; and a warehouse fashion show produced by Richard de Jager (of avant-garde knitwear label Pwhoa) featuring a selection of autumn/winter fashion collections. Designers included Dandy Savant, White Noise, Emma Coleman, Grace and Pwhoa.

• Tanya Hagen, the editor of UK Lulu magazine came to the fashion show and bought the vast majority of Richard de Jager's collection to take back and shoot as well as to introduce to Paris Fashion Week, where she is involved in helping emerging designers get into shows;

• A buyer for American furniture design company Ameico identified Liam Mooney's trestle tables as an import possibility and is currently presenting them to the MOMA shop. Ameico distributes to over 300 USA retailers; and

• Hong Kong's City magazine ran a feature on the Number One project and introduced Michael Young, curator of 100% Design Tokyo to whatiftheworld, who were then asked to bring some of SA's emerging design talent to showcase at the fair in November this year.

"An excellent response from the media and the design community has helped us see that there is a permanent platform for emerging design and we have decided to dedicate our Hope Street gallery as a full time design studio," said Rhodes.

The next whatiftheworld design event, Number Two, is scheduled for Friday, 5 October. For more details www.whatiftheworld.com

Wrapped up for winter
Sanlam SA Fashion Week (SSAFW) has presented its first autumn/winter collection in a bid to boost local design and generate more jobs through exports.

"By expanding SSAFW's focus to now include winter, we will be getting closer to realising our ideal of sustaining and building local brands while equipping designers with the necessary skills, experience and knowledge to compete in international markets," said SSAFW director Lucilla Booyzen.

Designers included Abigail Betz, Amanda Laird Cherry, Jacques van der Watt for Black Coffee, Bongiwe Walaza, Clive, Colleen Eitzen, Ephraim Molingoana for Ephymol, Julian, Karen Ter Mortzhuizen for Lunar and Terrence Bray. 

Each designer showed a highly focused, pared-down range of only the very best items in their collections, highlighting the finest fabrics, strongest silhouettes and highest quality workmanship in signature capsule collections.

"The focus of the winter collections turned to the essentials of fashion and the business fundamentals behind it, as opposed to fashion shows intended for pure entertainment value," said Booyzen.

Margaret Jenks, Sanlam Executive Director Group Marketing and Communications, emphasised that the financial institution's sponsorship was principally driven by its commitment to supporting the development of successful entrepreneurs.

"South Africa's economic future depends on a vibrant SMME sector. Designers, supported by local consumers proudly wearing the wonderful array of ‘Made in SA' labels, have the capacity to contribute significantly to small business development and job creation."

Wolff wins
Heinrich Wolff of Cape Town-based architectural firm Noero Wolff Architects has scooped the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African contemporary architecture.This is the seventh arts award bestowed by DaimlerChrysler. The company has sponsored different art disciplines and recognised artists within the fields of contemporary art, jazz, sculpture, choreography, creative photography and poetry since 2000.
 
Wolff (36) became a partner in Noero Wolff Architects in 1998. Over the past 10 years he has taught design, construction and theory at various universities, and focused on the themes of Third World architecture, material culture and architecture and landscape. His architectural work includes residential, commercial, low-cost housing, educational and health facilities.
 
The jury panel said that Wolff "is able to work on a high level at all stages of architectural work – whether theory, aesthetics or social environment – by using simple elements".

Wolff said he did not  believe in a national unified style and it was the diversity of South Africa's people that should be expressed. "Too many South Africans blindly import architectural styles from the Western world, with the result being an assembly of motifs disconnected from their origins."

Wolff wins a R30 000 cash prize and will exhibit his work, with the other seven finalists, in Berlin and Bayreuth as well as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
 
The other finalists were Archilab represented by Marco Bezzoli, Thorsten Deckler, Heather Dodd,
Andy Horn, Ndabo Langa, Henning Rassmuss and Chris Wilkinson.

Biblioteq
Creative bookshop Biblioteq in Cape Town aims to inspire and provide resources for creative minds. Already a prime destination for the design, advertising, media, film and fashion industries, Biblioteq retails visual culture in the form of books and art.

Books lie face up on a forest of copper and walnut pillars, showing off their design and adding to the constant theme of creativity and inspiration. One wall of the shop serves as a gallery space.

Businesses, advertising agencies, production companies, education centres and private individuals can also take advantage of Biblioteq's reference library service. Bibloteq will consult with the company or individual and advise on and supply a notable collection of reference books within a budget set by the customer. 

To keep up with what's new, customers can also sign up for a newsletter with alerts on the latest books in store. E-mail: rotem_is@mac.com.

Store details:
41 Kloof Street, Cape Town, 8001. (Corner of Kloof and Beckham Streets). Tel/Fax: 021 422 0774

Living on the edge
Cape Town's new Extreme Hotel, known for its high-octane take on hospitality, has boosted niche design suppliers in the creation of its first flagship outlet.

With a mission to "create the world's leading youth hotel brand by making our guests feel like rock stars", the hotel is geared to the growing adventure tourism market for extreme or action sports.

One of the commissions for the 130-room hotel, whose features include a five-storey climbing wall on the outside of the building, was to create glass poolside garments that would look and flow like fabric.

Nelius Britz, owner of The Edge glass studio, and fellow artist Abraham le Roux created 17 pieces of glass watersports-wear to ‘hang' on the washing line next to the hotel's pool. The pieces were created by moulding actual garments and then baking the glass mould replicas. They also created lift landing lava sculptures on each floor, to reflect the motif on the specially woven carpets. There were five sets of lava installations, consisting of three pieces mounted on the wall and lit from behind. These pieces were also kiln-created and, as with the swimming clothes, texture and transparency levels were key.

"The Edge works with high-quality colour imported glass and the end result shows crisp colour range and good differentiation," said Britz. "The combination of glass as a material and the creative application in this context, ensures that you look twice, especially with the poolside art, which creates a very effective illusion."

Extreme Hotel's GM, Joe Segers, added: "The purpose of the wash line theme was to create awareness of the unique property from passing vehicles and the artwork is promoting us beautifully. Many guests are blown away when they approach the artwork after seeing it, only to find out that it is glass art."

HEADLINE
The 2007 Big Blue Makhulu Polane competition opens for entries at www.bigblue.co.za on 1 June 2007. Makhulu Polane (loosely translated as Big Idea) aims to discover new, original, South African talent every year. The competition is open to anyone who feels they have a T-shirt design that is unique and quintessentially South African. Aspiring designers must submit their designs via the Big Blue website by 15 July 2007. The winning designer will take away R20 000 in cash and his/her T-shirt design will be sold in all Big Blue and Kitsch & Kool stores for two months.