Table of contents for VISI 131 in Visi

Ed's LETTER It's a phrase often attributed to Mark Twain and his famously bushy moustache back in the late 1800s. “We simply take a lot of old ideas,” he said, “and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn, and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same pieces of coloured glass that have been in use through all the ages.” I sort of agree with him. Mr Twain's version is perhaps a little too determinist for my liking – I prefer to think we build on what's gone before – but I agree that, fundamentally, nothing fresh or original suddenly winks into existence in the mind of its creator. Yes, we may…

IF THERE WAS ONE SKILL that the computersavvy, financially flush and restless picked up during Covid, it was buying knick-knacks on online auctions. Exactly how these denizens of the internet got so good at flexing their virtual paddles so quickly is still a bit of a mystery to me – but then I'm the person who managed to outbid herself the first time she plunged into the auction fray, ending up with an imposing Victorian cabinet I wasn't even sure I wanted. Admittedly, Strauss & Co, Aspire and Stephan Welz & Co – three of SA's great auction houses – make it quite easy for the technologically challenged. Even so, without an old hand at hand, things can go somewhat awry for the uninitiated. There you are, registered to bid,…

✖ THE IDEA “The piece uses our signature Kalki Ceramics tiles to create patterns inspired by local South African flora. But while the shapes and colours are inspired by fynbos, the possibilities for pattern and colour combinations are endless. The idea arose from our love for South Africa's landscape, something that has really shaped our outlook on design. The inimitable geometries, colours and forms of fynbos seemed like a natural starting point for the first iteration of the piece.” ✖ THE CREATIVE METHODOLOGY “We aimed to create a contemporary form of lightweight steel and timber, which becomes a blank canvas for any pattern and colour combination. The form – a simple extruded rectangle with ceramic tiles on the top and sides – belies the complexity of the construction; the steel…

✖ AUCKLAND PARK PREPARATORY SCHOOL: STEAM CENTRE Part retrofit and part contemporary addition to the school's existing library and staffroom, the STEAM Centre was designed by Catherine de Souza and Guy Trangos, principals at Joburg architecture and design studio Meshworks. With the school's need for a number of new facilities, Meshworks designed a series of spaces that blur the boundaries between disciplines and learning methods. “A major focus of the centre's design was creating various spaces for children's diverse needs,” says Guy. “Children learn differently – some by making, some by reading, some by performing,” adds Catherine. “Some prefer to sit alone in a quiet pod, while others enjoy the creative confusion of a group meeting around a desk. Through the various areas and across the levels of the STEAM…

MUNKUS, BY AWARD-WINNING DESIGNER Thando Ntuli, is a South African luxury brand known for crafting timeless ready-to-wear pieces. Celebrating individuality and womanhood, MUNKUS creates clothing for all age groups, inspired by the classic silhouettes of South Africa in the 1980s and '90s. ✖ My typical workday isn't really structured. I'm more of a night owl than an early bird simply because evenings are quieter, and I tend to focus better then. Mornings involve checking emails and prioritising work according to what needs attention at that moment. It could be speaking to CMT (who manufacture clothing for us) or to an illustrator to ensure they have everything to keep the projects going. ✖ My favourite design destination is Japan. The Japanese produce everything within their own country. Also, everyone tends to…

Forget dubious “Chinese” symbols and hastily applied upper-arm declarations of devotion. There is, in fact, a world of spectacularly executed tattoos out there – and a lot that's been written about them too. For a real sense of this inky zeitgeist, check out Phaidon's Tattoo You: A New Generation of Artists, with an introduction by editor of Things & Ink magazine, Alice Snape. This 700-image book deep-dives into a new generation of tattoo artists who are making their mark on the industry, highlighting the work of 75 talented youngsters from across the globe in thoughtful profiles and lush layouts. The featured artists boast disparate styles that range from retro Americana to wispy, meandering illustrations. Notably, there's are some brilliant female artists in the mix – they include Argentinian Yanina Alexandra,…

IN ITALY'S FAR SOUTH, THE RESIDENTS TALK IN THE LOCAL DIALECT about lu sule, lu mare, lu ientu – sun, sea and wind; the three powerful natural forces that have shaped the landscape and the local population over centuries. With its redcoloured soil, green olive groves and cactus fields, the landscape often resembles parts of northern Africa or Mexico – but its small villages, country roads with walls of stacked boulders, and vast fields with robust masserie (fortified farms), trulli (workers’ cottages) and casali (farmhouses) show that this is clearly Puglia. Hints of the centuries-old architectural history are everywhere in a region that southern Italians describe as the “end of the world”, and near the small village of Serranova, nestled in a nature reserve, is Villa Kico. Built as a…

✖ AIMÉE PEARSON DIRECTOR OF CAPE TOWN FURNITURE WEEK My husband Gareth and I have a place in Graaff-Reinet, and we go whenever we can. The beautiful scenery along the R62 makes the distance a pleasure to drive, and being in that part of the Eastern Cape makes our world back in Cape Town feel so much bigger. It's a lovely, walkable town with some great shops, restaurants and galleries, incredible surrounding landscapes, and the magical village of Nieu-Bethesda only 30 minutes away. Read more about the second edition of Cape Town Furniture Week, which Aimée co-founded with husband Gareth Pearson, on page 40. ✖ SARAH BUITENDACH JOURNALIST, EDITOR AND REGULAR VISI CONTRIBUTOR As a Vaalie who grew up hitting the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast regularly, the Cape's beach towns largely…

HOW DO WE WRITE OF HOME? Writing this piece reminded me how deeply personal and crucial a sense of home is. My realisation is that home is a mental holding space. It can be a memory – a linking of our archives of sensory experience. It can be a place of growth and living – of time shared and time spent. It's our history and our culture; it's our grounding and our dreaming. Home is something we yearn for. It's something we return to, something we build or something we search for that can help complete us, because we have a deep need to be held, to belong. I realise that I'm constantly seeking home – not the building, but the belonging; the mental space that allows me a place…

TAPPING INTO ITS ARCHIVES, Mungo has reinterpreted a cloth created by its founder and original designer, Stu Holding, when he first started experimenting with the versatility of antique looms. As Stu discovered, the magic of the double cloth was in its reversibility – and in its warm, weighty handle, which has an almost wool-like quality. We spoke to Mungo's creative director Tessa Holding to find out more about the new Double Cloth, and its more graphic and contemporary construction. ✖ Tell us about the weaving techniques used to craft the Double Cloth blanket. “The Double Cloth blanket uses a unique weaving construction, where two complete cloth layers are woven one above the other. The result is a reversible textile, with a warm and weighty handle. Its magic lies in the…

TAKING A WALK THROUGH STEYN CITY with Bilala Mabuza is eye-opening. She's working on several houses and apartments on the lifestyle estate on the north edge of Johannesburg, and has a long history with the development. “My first project here was seven years ago,” she says. “It was also the first full house we designed from the ground up, working closely with the architect and the homeowners.” Bilala explains the origins of her love for aesthetic pleasures and design: “My grandmother made beautiful things by hand all her life, so I always understood that home can be gorgeous and decadent, with lots of food and love around me. It was natural that I too would end up making spaces beautiful.” Leaving behind a successful corporate career, she studied interior decorating,…

✖ RURAL: ASIA Ahungalla Point, Sri Lanka It was back in the early Noughties that Sri Lanka's Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company first ventured into experiences with Resplendent Ceylon – its tea plantation tours and resorts. Fast-forward two decades, and it has just launched a trio of beachier (although no less luxe) boutique hotels, two of which are along the golden sands of the south coast of the country. Reverie Ahu Bay on Ahungalla Point (pictured below) is a laid-back, secluded cluster of beach houses nestled between two coves. Elegant teak furnishings are set against rattan, textiles and blue hand-crafted tiles, while the artworks echo the sea views with photography of the famed stilt fishermen, who can be spotted along the water's edge. Come for the holistic wellness and the sea…

A family affair is how architect Bettina Woodward describes the design of this Stellenbosch house. And it quite literally is. Bettina is the principal architect at her practice Open City, and she designed the house for (and with) her brother Roland Andrag, sister-in-law Juandi and their family. Roland and Bettina grew up in a modernist home. Their German-immigrant grandparents had a house full of original Mid-century design and, says Bettina, “My parents were very interested in modern and abstract art. My mother always pushed radical ideas.” Bettina has subsequently restored a spectacular 1970s modernist home in Cape Town, and is fascinated with the rich vein of regional Modernism in and around Stellenbosch, created by the likes of architects Pius Pahl (who studied at the Bauhaus), Gawie Fagan and Revel Fox.…

IN 1994, when luxury safari operator &Beyond first opened a lodge in KwaZulu-Natal's Phinda Private Game Reserve, it was ahead of its time. In an era of safari-pastiche and taxidermy-as-decor, &Beyond Phinda Forest Lodge offered a minimalist vision of what lodge design could be. Gone were the rough-hewn walls and thatched roofs, replaced by glass and wood and an immersion in the endangered sand forest. Here was a lodge that luxuriated in forest bathing long before shinrin-yoku became a buzzword. But all lodges, prescient though they may be, need to evolve. And in 2023, it was time for Phinda Forest Lodge to step up to the demands of contemporary safari travellers. There was just one catch: to protect the sensitive forest ecosystem, the physical footprint of the lodge's 16 suites…

“THIS IS LIKE TINDER, but worse!” I exclaimed after yet another unsuccessful apartment viewing. Too pokey, weird layout, not enough light, horrible tiles, a definite swipe right. And even when I swiped left, something always seemed off. Of course nothing matched; I was still deeply attached. Since 1999, I had been happily in love with Westminster Mansions, an apartment block on a quiet street on Yeoville Ridge, nestled under the iconic water tower and located high above the city, overlooking Ponte, Ellis Park and Joburg Stadium. I moved to Johannesburg from Rhodes University, to start my urban culture-focused media company Black Rage Productions with Kutloano Skosana and Dzino. It was if the city opened its arms to me and let me make my dreams come true. It was LOVE AT…

TIME IS A PRECIOUS COMMODITY in our busy lives these days, and this new showroom located in the Old Cape Quarter in Waterkant Street, Cape Town aims at giving you more of it. Called The Sourcing Lab, it is a showroom and consultancy that connects interior and architectural design in one place. Creative director Johanna van der Merwe and her team have created a space where the design process is streamlined for both professionals and homeowners. “We bring together the best interior and architectural brands under one roof,” says Johanna. “In doing so, we have removed the need for endless showroom-hopping, instead providing clients with the ideal starting point for their design journey.” Open for browsing without appointment, the showroom is made up of various spaces that show how all…

“I WANTED TO CELEBRATE everything that I had struggled with in my own beauty journey – my hair, my skin, my identity as a modern woman in a traditional culture,” says photographer Thandiwe Muriu about her debut photo book Camo. Through saturated portraits that create a surreal illusion between the subject and the background, Thandiwe aims to confront issues surrounding identity and self-perception while unfolding a new perspective on the empowerment of women. “I didn't plan for the series to be exclusively about women, but it was a natural starting point for me,” she says. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Thandiwe's connection with photography started at a young age. By 23, she was working professionally, shooting campaigns for prominent companies in East Africa. The complexities of being a woman…

IF YOU WERE ABLE TO ATTEND Cape Town Furniture Week in mid-February, chances are you would've noticed these two meandering around the various showrooms and spaces of this growing Mother City design fest. Anton and Dennis Teeuw are twin brothers based in the city of Gorinchem in western Netherlands, and they were invited to Cape Town by VISI's sustainable design partner Circular Squared. The reason? Well, if you're looking for an example of how to run a successful, innovative business with sustainable design at the forefront of every decision it makes, these guys are it. And what better way to learn how to do it than from folks who are already doing it, and doing it well? Anton and Dennis took part in two Cape Town Furniture Week panel discussions,…

IF OU APPRECIATE AN EFFORTLESS DRINK, and find most cocktails too saccharine, then the Old Fashioned is perfect for you. The traditional whisky cocktail contains granulated sugar or syrup, a dash of Angostura Bitters, and either rye whiskey or bourbon. It's served in a tumbler and garnished with a twist of citrus, and sometimes a cocktail cherry. Harking back to the early 1800s, this OG of cocktails regained popularity after being the tipple of choice in the hit series Mad Men. Whether you like yours simple, fancy or experimental, here some of Joburg's finest iterations. Without a doubt, Marble's Old Fashioned is the winner: both the traditional and the Ginger Old Fashioned are a benchmark for Jozi. The ginger version contains a zesty ginger syrup, a piece of candied ginger…

IT'S THE KIND OF HOUSE YOU BARELY NOTICE from its jacaranda-lined street in Waterkloof Ridge in Pretoria. It is “very low-profile”, says Johan Wentzel of W Design Architecture Studio, which he and his partner in life and work, Grete van As, founded together. Given the home's spectacular setting, downplaying the grandeur of the entrance heightens the impact of what's to come when you cross the threshold. “When you enter, the first thing you see is the garden,” says Johan. It's beautiful, with large, established trees and terraces, and with stone retaining walls running down to the “dog park”, as the locals call it (in reality, an expanse of lawns, woods and pools in a valley dropping down towards a dam). The boundary is barely discernible, so the garden seems to…

“WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT THAT PLAYING WITH LEGO BRICKS AS A KID WOULD EVOLVE INTO A MOVIE ABOUT MY LIFE. IT'S PROOF THAT YOU CAN DO IT TOO…” PHARRELL WILLIAMS ON INSTAGRAM Be inspired to build, unbuild and rebuild your life – and share the results on Instagram, tagging visi_mag and am_visi.…