Yenza – promoting the power and beauty of making in the South African townships – adds to Cape Town’s WDC 2014 status, writes Paul Makovsky.
Metropolis Magazine’s feature Eyes on Cape Town by Paul Makovsky, reported that this year’s World Design Capital—the first in Africa— is bursting with energy, creativity, and reinvention.
Last May when four young designers—Lucie de Moyencourt, Charl Edwards, Kara Furter, and Renée Rossouw—started work on a WDC2014 project, they set out to address a social need. Out of that desire came Yenza, an organization dedicated to promoting makers and designers in the townships who don’t necessarily have the means or the networking tools to promote themselves.
“We don’t act as a middleman, but rather we direct focus and attention on small businesses in the rural areas, hoping to steer business towards them and also start a real conversation on the entire scope of African design,” Rossouw says. “Many of the township makers work within an economy of means, so their designs are very functional.” The two unnamed pieces (above), debuted at this year’s Design Indaba.
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