Table of contents for VISI 116 in Visi

THERE’S A VIRGINIA CREEPER that grows in our courtyard. It has pretty much colonised the entire road, and become the stuff of legend among our neighbours. From a trunk about as thick as my leg in our small flowerbed, it has spread its leafy vines all the way up and down a shared servitude, clothing several property walls with a lush green collar. Some have even strung trellises across their courtyards to enjoy its cool shade in summer. Virginia, as she’s now affectionately called, is also the first sign of spring in our ’hood, and each year it’s like someone’s flipped a switch. One day the plant is its dormant, wintry, brown-thicket self … then, within a week, there’s a dappled pattern of green everywhere. Looking out of the kitchen…

For as long as I can remember, environmental awareness has been part of my life. I volunteered with many environmental organisations from my primary school days to university, and an issue that caught my attention early on was the loss of green open spaces (and the biodiversity of our precious wetlands) due to the rapid expansion of infrastructure for housing and commerce. I witnessed this first-hand as construction happened in Protea Glen, a growing development on the outskirts of Soweto, next to where I grew up. I saw the impact it had on the plant life and the environment as the neighbourhood expanded, quickly swallowing up the once-sprawling green spaces. Populations of indigenous plants in the area sharply declined, and the impact of habitat loss on the fauna of our…

Things have a way of coming full circle. In the early ’90s, Gregory Katz was pulling all-nighters along with his fellow Bachelor of Architecture students at the University of Cape Town. One of their lecturers, Gus Guernica, was responsible for teaching them about detailing buildings. “Gus would say to us, ‘Why does glass need to sit in a frame? Why can’t you put the window straight into the wall? Don’t just accept that a window needs a frame!’” recalls Gregory, smiling. “He taught us to go back to the fundamentals and to challenge convention; for me, that was very formative .” Now a lecturer himself at the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, Gregory has spent the past year unpacking ornament and detail with his own students.…

If you’re looking for tucked-away escapes in spellbinding natural surrounds, Fazenda’s Instagram account should definitely be on your list to scope out. THE SWATHES OF GLASS SHOWCASE VIEWS OF A NATURAL FOREST AND LICHEN- CLOAKED ROCKS, AND THE SILHOUETTE OF THE LANGEBERG MOUNTAINS. The images in question belong to Fazenda Luxury Retreat & Farm near Swellendam, owned by the Van der Merwe family, whose vision has produced their latest “baby” – a conservatory shaded by monolithic boulders, wattles and blue gum trees. Begun and completed within just three short months during lockdown, the greenhouse is the fourth establishment on the working farm of Fazenda, offering guests a luxury mountainside getaway not far from Cape Town. It follows three existing mountain cabins that hug the dam’s fringes – this one, though,…

SPACE... It’s the first thing you notice when you walk into this striking penthouse apartment on the top floor of one of the Steyn City blocks in Johannesburg’s “new North”. The high ceilings give a first impression of an expansive home, rather than the typical boxy square found on other estates around the city. “We needed to get height into the apartment,” explains architect Lesley Carstens, who worked on the project with her partner, architect Silvio Rech, and interior designers Nabeela Abdul-Karrim and Nina Roux. BY USING TEXTURE, THE TEAM HAS CREATED A CONTRAST BETWEEN ELEVATED GLAMOUR AND EARTHY TACTILITY. “The ceiling heights were initially quite low,” says Silvio. “We could not change the window heights, but we pushed the engineers and architects to raise our ceilings as high as…

UNTHINKING Unthinking was my first collection, debuting the year after RICH MNISI was founded. It was a representation of things I grew up seeing in township culture that were minimised or not acknowledged, especially queer identity. It encouraged “unthinking” and accepting reality. I don’t usually speak about the matters that are close to me – I rather do it visually, with triggers that help people see things in a different light. COCA-COLA COLLAB The RICH MNISI Coke Threds capsule collection was a collaboration with Coca-Cola geared towards a younger generation. As much as my aesthetic is youthful, the silhouettes I go for are quite mature: pleated skirts and tailored jackets. I almost didn’t fit the demographic because I wasn’t designing hoodies and T-shirts… But the collection sold out! It was…

The “LV” in Casa LV’s brand name represents the first names of Lynne Hirsch and Vilma Schincariol, who created their glassware company based on a lifelong love for the material. Vilma has been a collector of glass for decades, exploring the world and finding unique pieces; while Lynne spent her childhood appreciating glass during visits to her father’s glass-making factory. We chatted to them about Casa LV’s designs, what characterises a really well-made vase, and what’s next on the horizon for their brand. We love your Julia and Lara vase designs. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind these pieces? As Casa LV expanded, we knew we were in trouble because, truth be told, technology is not our thing. So we called on our daughters for emergency help…

In practical terms, going off the grid is simple. Essentially, it involves three key services that the municipality would normally provide: power, water and waste. You could have a generator, a borehole and a septic tank, and free yourself from the grid. There are houses far from municipal services – on farms or at nature reserves, for example – where living off the grid has been the norm for years. But here’s the kicker: it isn’t necessarily the most environmentally friendly way of living. Ken Stucke, director at Environment Response Architecture (ERA) and senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, says that between the growing awareness of the global climate crisis and the erratic or threatened delivery of services by local municipalities, interest in off-grid…

Specialising in bespoke and custom denim, Tshepo Jeans has built a devoted following around the globe since its launch in 2015. And the brand’s new Hyde Park Corner store features a mirrored storefront with a circular entrance, alluding to passing into another dimension rather than a standard retail shop. “We wanted every touchpoint in the store to act as a storytelling platform, so we aim to transport people into the Tshepo world as soon as they enter the space,” says founder Tshepo Mohlala. “We wanted to create something extraordinary.” “The brief was to create a store that told Tshepo’s story – an experiential store, pushing interactive and visual design,” explains Asher Marcus of store designers Hubo Studio. The wide-ranging narrative of Tshepo denim – from the origins of the material…

JOBURG ASH, FARMER AND BUSINESS OWNER Fern green and moss green. Known to his customers as Joburg Ash, Ashleigh Tumelo Machete is one of our VISI VOICES essay writers in this issue (page 26). In 2014, he established Jozi Food Farmer – an edible and ornamental landscaping business in Joburg – with his business partner, Negin Monkoe. Ashleigh wears many hats: he’s a Garden Day ambassador, a third-generation farmer, an aspiring motion-graphic artist, a plant doctor, a plant stylist and a natural-dye enthusiast. Hailing from Soweto, he studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, and says that he’s always had a fascination with plants. PARIS BRUMMER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND ARTIST 2011 introduced us to “Lady Gaga mint”. It’s a calm but bold and modern shade. Anything more yellow and it’s sickly;…

When I was a child, my summer holidays were usually spent with my paternal grandparents in East London, and my thoughts often return nostalgically to the time I spent with them. To this day, the smell of vanilla reminds me of my grandmother – very much in line with the cogent observation by Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov: “Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.” I always associate the smell of vanilla with my late grandmother. A short, feisty and artistic woman, my gran was not only an accomplished seamstress, but also an avid baker. How I long for a slice of her moist sandwich cake, with fork patterns in the vanilla icing and glacé cherries on top… As a young child, I…

“You know, I’ve been practising Tai Chi for 30 years, and in it, we say, ‘Stand like a mountain, flow like a river,’” says architect Paul Oosthuizen. Yes, he’s passionate about the Chinese martial art, but in this particular instance, he’s using the Tai Chi principle to illustrate his motivation behind the design of a very special beachfront property. Receding into a thicket of milkwood trees on a rocky outcrop that runs down into the Keurbooms estuary in Plettenberg Bay, the house in question is undeniably sculptural, with an interplay of curved and angular lines, and the raw materiality of a concrete finish. “The concrete plays on the edge of that seemingly impossible fusion of soft and hard,” says Paul. “You want to be threatened by it because of its…

For Eleonora Nieuwenhuizen and partner Erwin, the pull to live on the water was a strong one. She had grown up in Oostknollendam – a town in the Dutch province of North Holland – and the couple returned to build this special home, surrounded on three sides by archetypal Dutch landscape. “Erwin and I knew exactly what we wanted,” says Eleonora, “and we already had a good idea of what was needed to create it. We found architect Angela Holterman of Hollands Zicht architects via Pinterest – she lives on the water herself,and has experience in designing water homes – then selected several contractors and project-managed it all ourselves.” The home’s location and surroundings dictated the architect’s approach, with the outdoor areas being a special focus. Roof terraces and floating…

When advertising guru Mike Abel co-founded M&C Saatchi Abel in South Africa 11 years ago, he identified the perfect opportunity to merge his two great loves: creativity in the realm of advertising, and that which is formally considered art. Today, the M&C Saatchi Abel Contemporary Art Collection encompasses more than 120 artworks, and elevates the agency’s two campuses in Cape Town and Johannesburg from functional office spaces to galleries. From a highly covetable Mary Sibande photograph that depicts a domestic worker knitting a Superman cape, to a sparkly Rosie Mudge created from automotive paint and glitter glue, and a sobering acrylic-and-pastel tribute to the fallen miners of Marikana by Bambo Sibiya, the works co-exist in perfectly imperfect harmony. Although there is astute business acumen behind many of the purchasing decisions,…

ATLAS OF INTERIOR DESIGN by Dominic Bradbury Phaidon | R2 065 The most in-depth survey of contemporary residential interior design ever published, this remarkable book includes interiors from 50 countries in its survey of more than 400 of the most inspirational residential rooms from the past eight decades. As the publishers suggest, “No one style wins out in this book” – it covers an enormous range of designers, periods and looks. It includes iconic homes belonging to such luminaries as Luis Barragán and Dieter Rams, as well as less well-known – but no less exceptional – interiors. An essential resource for any design professional. A ROOM OF HER OWN: INSIDE THE HOMES AND LIVES OF CREATIVE WOMEN by Robyn Lea Thames & Hudson | R1 035 Featuring the homes of…

Founded by Stephanie Brearley as a “passion project” during the first lockdown in April 2020, Freya Hats quickly blossomed into a small Instagram business – mainly “as a way to raise money for those in need”, says Stephanie – and then into an online store. During lockdown, “I was using fabric from discarded fabric sample books to make hats,” she says. “I felt quite helpless, stuck at home, and I wanted to play my part in helping somehow.” Freya Hats still donates a portion of all its profits to charities that support women and children in need, and has a steadfast commitment to sustainability too. Their hats are made from natural fibres (linen, cotton and straw), and Stephanie works closely with a small, local, female-owned CMT, which makes most of…

The halls of Cape Town’s historic Union House came alive this August in a riot of bold pattern and courageous colour at the “Right Here, Right Now!” exhibition, where some of the country’s hottest emerging and established talent was showcased over four floors under the curatorial eye of Tracy Lynch, creative director of Clout/SA and the Nando’s Design Programme. The week-long exhibition, which was also the launch of art consultancy House Union Block (HUB), featured new work by Dokter and Misses, the Keiskamma Art Project, Mash. T Design Studio and others, and formed part of the inaugural Cape Town Design Trail, organised by the Decorex Africa portfolio. Visitors were welcomed into the space with a showcase of work on the first floor by designers established and new, ranging from TheUrbanative…

WIN WITH CLM HOME One lucky VISI reader will win a Balance Narrow Modular Bookcase from CLM Home, worth R4 520. This unique combination of stackable separate boxes and shelving provides a bespoke modern storage unit that you can configure to fit any space. Go to visi.co.za/win to enter. WE ASK_ED YOU ONL_INE: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE HOME-DECOR ACCESSORY? More than 600 of you took our poll to let us know. Here are the results: #READERLOVE Loving the latest issue? Snap a pic of the mag and tag us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. In the latest VISI! @philip123inizio VISI – Being seen. Making a presence @jacorademeyer Future Forward! My first front cover! @parisbphoto Weekend plans? What is there to do but face-dive into an outdoor picnic? @smtnggoodstudio INSTANT INSPIRATION…

“I can see those are doing better than the last ones,” I said admiringly. “Must be the weather…” “Yeah, must be.” My aunt Bridget smiled back at me as she tended to her onugbu plants in my cousin’s tiny makeshift garden in the US. Onugbu are bitter greens that are widely eaten as leaf vegetables in Nigeria, and my cousin is one of the many Africans living in the US who have begun planting their own food in backyards in recent years – mainly due to the need for freshly produced African crops, which they much prefer to the “dry” ones imported from the continent. “Those things are not healthy,” my aunt continued – she was talking about those “dry” imports – as she plucked the freshly harvested leaves from…

Architect Xavier Huyberechts has a wonderfully poetic way of describing the way he designed the weekend getaway he and his brother, Damien, built on their farm in the Vredefort Dome – the oldest and biggest meteorite impact site on the planet. He wanted to “gently lift the carpet at the bottom of the hill and slide the house underneath”. And that’s exactly what he’s done. A green roof runs seamlessly from the hillside and over the house, like a blanket of earth that renders it almost invisible from many angles. In fact, the way it has been designed and built means it can – and will, at the end of its life – disintegrate and become reabsorbed into the earth. It’s made almost entirely from the earth, and emphatically for…

Designed in 1968 by icon of Australian organic architecture David Hollander, the house sits like massive boulders on a hillside, with its sweeping cement curves nestled under a canopy of gumtrees. Walk through the asymmetrical front door and you enter a cosy burrow-like interior, with winding walls, shafts of daylight coming through the skylights, and planter boxes filling the spaces with greenery. “It was nonconformist and experimental, and reflective of its time,” says passionate owner Nancy Renzi of Renzi Design, who signed on the bottom line three days after the home went on the market. “The house was absolutely stunning – I loved the way it sits in the landscape, how it feels so good inside because of the rounded walls, and the light coming through those funny windows in…

What is Dream Press all about? Dream Press is an independent publishing studio that specialises in risograph printing and bookbinding. We promote and facilitate the production of self-published artist books and zines, while also printing artwork editions for designers, artists and illustrators. This year, Dream Press has also become a micro-publisher – we invite creatives to make a limited-edition zine or artist book in collaboration with us, and take these publications to book fairs and stores around the world. Our first fair was the New York Printed Matter Virtual Art Book Fair in February, where we launched eight publications. We are proud that a few editions were purchased by the main library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and will form part of its collection. How did the publishing studio…