It's summertime in the Cape and the Mother City is buzzing. It's the time of the year when the streets are flooded with arty and design-y types as the cool and trendy debate the ever relevant questions about form and function, traipsing between the many beautiful showrooms in the city to experience the newly launched, highly covetable items on show at the recent Cape Town Furniture Week.
The exhibition programme took place across 50+ venues in five design districts in central Cape Town: Central City, De Waterkant, Kloof Street, Gardens and East City. Design lovers walked between the different locations in each district exploring the beautiful work created by South African designers. The proceedings kicked off with the festive opening night last Wednesday and participating spaces were open to the public throughout the evening.
The festival hub at Church House, alongside the city centre's St George’s Cathedral, hosted a collective exhibition of new designs from brands and designers, along with pop-up installations over the two upper floors. Now in its third year, the festival has established itself as a great platform for contemporary furniture, lighting and homeware.
Here are some stand out design brands and their stories:
KRAMER BY PHILIP KRAMER
Owned and run by Phil Kramer, Kramer Design creates high end, contemporary furniture, lighting and loudspeakers that are somehow fun, comfortable and sophisticated, in his Cape Town based workshop. He told us about his creative inspiration:
Out of school I studied animation, DJ-ed professionally for many years and ran a small recording studio. I always liked making things, and when my flatmate moved out and took a bunch of furniture with him, I decided to make a replacement dining table. I borrowed a small stick welder, watched some YouTube videos, and got down to it. Once I realised people were more interested in my first effort at making a table than anything I'd ever recorded in the studio, I started to switch gears. That was 12 years ago, totally self taught, for better or worse. My design sense is shaped by my dad (a painter), friends, movies, consumer electronics — studying design is unnecessary in my opinion, just keep your eyes open.
Why speakers?
I'm a music enthusiast, producer and DJ. I've got good critical listening skills. I'd experimented with speakers, but when I was approached by Matt and Mish at OnePark, a listening bar in the city bowl, they put a lot of faith in me to pull it off, gave me free rein. It worked. Making speakers is technical, and can be expensive, you need someone willing to put the cash into it. It expedited the importance and prominence of speakers for me as a key product. It's the result of some unusual overlapping skill sets.
How does the shape effect the sound?
Speakers are a specific flavour of design challenge, the physical form plays a huge role in how it sounds. The drivers (woofers, tweeters, etc) have specific parameters and relationships to how big the cabinet is, how it's tuned, what it's made of, the overall style of speaker. You can't spend your way out of a poor design — you have choices and they affect each other, it can become complicated to arrive at your desired end result. It's a lesson in compromise. So doing that and trying to make them look beautiful is difficult. It's one of the more clear cut cases of form follows function.
You've been involved in design collaborations?
Yes, with AKJP fashion concept store and designer Lukhanyo Mdingi, who both have a sophistication and elegance that I appreciate, but more relaxed and unpretentious than high end brands can often be. I try to capture that sensibility with my work, so I think that contributes to the strong brand combinations. My aesthetics and loudspeakers were what they needed to support their respective visions, on both Constitution Hill and in AKJP's Kloof street store.
You also design other things?
Yes! I find it difficult to balance how excited people are about the speakers with the other products I make, but lights are another speciality item (The Gradient Light won the 2024 FW Visi Design Prize), along with coffee tables and cabinets. I'm also constantly working on smaller one off projects and ideas, commissions, in all sorts of areas: framing, computers, fine art, video game accessories.
What do you think of the South African design scene?
When Gareth Pearson and Aimée Pearson, organisers of the Cape Town Furniture Week first started with Furniture Focus, I was almost unaware of the design scene. I didn't want trends or other people's ideas influencing what was doing — but that first night opened my eyes to how high quality South African design is. If you look at what Green Brother, Nish, Baliff and others are doing, the standard is high.
What work stood out?
Jordan Baliff's work with Woodbender blew me away. The craftsmanship and willingness to push a brand in a new direction was inspiring. Rupert at Green Brother's chair showcased what he does best, a process orientated, high technique genre of metalwork, and I really respect the skill on display. Ben Kennedy's work has a very elegant, simple vibe that I like a lot, and Nish had a really bold, interesting display at 156 Kloof.
What’s in the pipeline for Kramer designs?
I consider myself to be prolific, and I'm looking forward to consolidating everything and offering a more concise experience to clients. Products wise, I have a few designs that haven't been shown yet — bedside cabinets, a new light, bookshelf speakers, and I'm looking forward to showing those in the near future. I'm trying to figure out a completely in-house turntable and amplifier to offer with the speakers.
Where can we find your designs?
You can find my stuff at a few places in the CBD, but the only way (currently) to hear the speakers in person is to contact me and set up an appointment. In the absence of a showroom, my apartment is where most of the items live and remain set up to be looked at, turned on, listened to. The loudspeakers range from R15,000 to R65,000, the lights from R20,000 to R35,000, and tables are around R22,000.
Notable clients?
I can't go without mentioning OnePark again, Duck Duck Goose, Max Bagels, African Jacquard, Tomson and private clients, to all of whom I'm very grateful.
FROM COPENHAGEN TO CAPE TOWN WITH HAY AND INOVA CONCEPT STORE
Two forces in Cape Town’s design landscape collaborated recently for Cape Town Furniture Week: INOVA Concept Store, in partnership with Danish design brand HAY. They showed Kaapenhagen — a design initiative that challenged 10 of Cape Town’s innovative artists and designers to reimagine HAY’s iconic About A Chair AAC 222.
Each artist and designer transformed the Danish design, originally created by Hee Welling, into an interpretation bridging Scandinavian heritage with contemporary Cape Town design, ranging from functional updates to purely conceptual art pieces.
Brent Weldon, director of INOVA Concept Store said, “In a city recently crowned as the Best in the World by Time Out Magazine, this initiative captures why Cape Town is a global creative capital.”
You Are Cape Town by PARAGON
Cape Town is a city shaped by its people, its landscapes, and the ever-changing interplay between the two. You Are Cape Town is a sculptural expression of this relationship — a piece that doesn't just exist within the city but becomes a reflection of it. Clad in a mirrored surface, it captures the viewer in its form, dissolving the boundaries between self and place. As one approaches, they see themselves woven into the fabric of Cape Town, a reminder that the true essence of the city is found in those who move through it. .
Amaranthus by Myuzu
The material I used is Amaranthus, combining two varieties of hanging Amaranthus, coral fountain and green. Following the natural shape of the Amaranthus stem allowed me to mimic the curvature of the chair form. The idea is that the Amaranthus will continue to dry over time and keep its shape.
Klopse Blomme by Studio Ananta
Inspired by the iconic Kaapse Klopse and their dazzling explosion of colour, music and energy, the design is a vibrant celebration of heritage, resilience and freedom.
Patchwork Protea by ATTIK Design
A tribute to Cape Town’s dynamic identity — a city woven together by its cultural diversity, raw authenticity and natural beauty. Like the protea, an emblem of resilience and biodiversity, the design embraces the organic, the imperfect, and the interconnected. Inspired by the concept of patchwork, it reflects the layered histories, stories, and textures that shape Cape Town.
'R100 for Everything'What if play was the most valuable resource we had? by The Maak
In a world obsessed with material worth, The MAAK reimagined value through universal tools — imagination and play paying homage to uncelebrated design heroes and informal makers across South Africa who've pioneered circular thinking as a critical and creative design tool. Limiting ourselves to a R100 budget and materials salvaged from our local dump, our design reimagines the chair as different play objects: a swing, a seesaw, a go-kart, a slide, a noughts and crosses board, and a toy push car. Brought to life through a series of imagined realities captured in collaboration with Sune Van Tonder, the industrial neighbourhood of our Cape Town studio becomes the backdrop for a new playground of possibilities.
Bursting Ruffles by Sindiso Khumalo
I wanted to create a piece that felt like it was bursting with femininity. Our brand is unashamedly feminine, and I love to celebrate “the power of the girl” with my designs. I treated the legs like the cornrows you see on the streets of Cape Town. The fabric was reconstructed from waste materials from our production and remade into ruffles.
The Thinking Chair by The Detail Smith
Plato linked the chair to the seat of thought, to sit and think. The famous Buddhist aphorism follows, don’t just do something, sit there. When we sit and think, we can distinguish reality from illusion and embrace ambiguity. We all need a thinking chair — a metaphorical field of daisies so that your brain can do its thing.
Spectrum Mirrors by Caitlin Warther and Wendy Dixon:
Spectrum is a range of solid and gradient colour architectural mirrors created through a process of layering pure metals onto glass. Originally crafted as a fine art material by Caitlin Warther and Wendy Dixon of Cape Town-based artist duo Water Dixon, Spectrum Mirror is now available to architects and designers, with 25 unique gradients and 15 chromas.
Turning the Furniture Industry on Its Head and ‘Shining a Light’ on South African Design by Studio Goodd
Our installation explores transformation, sustainability, and the connection between nature and the home. The world constantly tells us to buy new, to replace, to consume. But what if we could take what already exists and breathe new life into it? What if a chair no longer needed to be a chair? This question inspired us to turn the piece on its head. Now standing as a sculptural floor lamp, our design draws from Cape Town’s iconic mountains and regional fynbos. The shade, reminiscent of a flower, encases an exposed halogen bulb, symbolising filament pollen. Its frame reflects the way nothing in nature grows in straight lines, while the original chair legs have been reworked into a functional side table, ensuring nothing goes to waste.
Echoes of Cape Town — A Chair of Community by Inhouse Design Studio
This chair celebrates the unity and heritage of Cape Town. Each of its four legs represents a chapter in the city’s story — from ancestral roots and colonial influence to struggle for liberation and a thriving modern spirit.
Where are Spectrum Mirrors made?
We make them in South Africa.
How would you use Spectrum Mirrors in your design, home or building?
They can be produced in different shapes, sizes and glass thickness. This allows various applications: large scale panels, tiling, cladding or objects like furniture.
Do you traverse the lines between décor and artwork?
The line between design and art is wonderfully fluid for us and it's exciting to see South Africans becoming more receptive to this nuanced relationship. Mirrors perfectly exemplify this intersection — they're inherently functional objects that can simultaneously serve as powerful artistic statements.
Your thoughts on CT furniture week.
We were so impressed with the CTFW team and love to see South African design presented in a thoughtful, professional and accessible way. We hope they'll continue to grow and position Cape Town as a design capital of the world.
