insight
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s someone who lives and works in the city, I consider myself lucky. Why, you may ask, given the constant noise, traffic, heat and dust? The answer is that I walk to and from work every day and get to experience and interact with every nuance inherent to Cape Town’s inner city – the colonial and art deco architecture, the various eateries, restaurants and coffee shops and people from all over the world. It really makes me appreciate Cape Town’s unique brand of cosmopolitanism – a mixture of post-apartheid South Africa, pan-Africanism and global urbanism – where the potential for innovation jumps out at you at every turn. It was with this in mind that I eagerly accepted an invitation from the Cape Town Partnership to tour what was formerly known as the East City Design Initiative, now renamed The Fringe: Cape Town’s Innovation District. The concept forms an integral part of the Cape Town World Design Capital Bid 2014, which was lodged last month and is to the design and creative industries what the 2010 FIFA World Cup was to, well, every industry in SA. While it may seem small in scale and niche in focus when weighed against the World Cup, it is tremendously significant in launching Cape Town and the country as a global design and innovation destination. The idea arose in 2007, when a host of interested parties began discussing with the government the idea of creating an environment that supported development in the fields of media, information and communications technologies (ICT) and design. The Fringe, in association with the City
of Cape Town and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) – specifically the Faculty of Informatics and Design – is being project managed by the Cape Town Partnership through its Creative Cape Town programme. The project is also heavily supported by the Western Cape Provincial Government through its Cape Catalyst Initiative. The area The Fringe incorporates is a block stretching from Buitenkant to Canterbury streets, and from Roeland to Darling streets.There is also a strip of land connecting CPUT from Longmarket through to Tennant streets, which borders the area formerly known as District Six. The incorporation of CPUT into the Fringe is a strategic move to implement the ‘urban science park’ model that The Fringe is based upon. It takes its cue from other science parks around the world – 22@Barcelona, the Toronto Fashion Incubator and Design London, to name a few. According to Zayd Minty, coordinator of Creative Cape Town, the aim of establishing this precinct is not to redevelop it by bashing down buildings and starting anew, but rather to work with what already exists in an attempt to encourage innovative, young entrepreneurs and start-up companies in the creative industries to move into the area and base their operations there. From this emerges the bigger picture: restaurants, coffee shops, bars and networking venues will begin to sprout, encouraging the commercial growth of an area where communication and idea generation will become the common currency. So what, then, already exists on The Fringe? The places I visited on the tour left me feeling inspired and confident
Opposite The open-plan workspace of Brightest Young Minds’ Innovation Studio has an industrial feel to it. Here, freelancers have access to all amenities, including an open-plan kitchen. This page, above Furnspace 3D’s Design Collaborative Hub in Harrington Street provides budding designers and architects with space and equipment as well as a place to network and share ideas.
April 2011 | 27