Platform_Architecture_and_Design_1.pdf

104 PATHFINDERS
“design”
Africa’s
double dare
STORY: Anna Nosari
The key words in understanding African design are many and varied: history, styles,
materials, design philosophies, objectives and means of expression. It could not be
otherwise, in a huge continent that one is often tempted to consider as a whole but
which actually encompasses many different realities
Among these, the most well known is doubtless represented by South Africa, whose
legislative capital Cape Town has been chosen as World Design Capital 2014 and which
hosts at Johannesburg, the MOAD (Museum of African Design), the first museum
on the African continent dedicated to design. Currently closed due to extension
works, the MOAD has housed exhibitions and events in partnership with creative
spaces in Africa and cultural institutions all over the world, aiming to become a
cultural workshop for promoting contemporary African innovation. The same
objective is at the heart of Design Indaba, an on-line publication and an important
annual demonstration created to put international creativity in contact with local
expressions of design, considered the driving force for social and economic change at
the service of communities and people. Among various projects, it includes “Africa
is now”, a selection of pieces coming from over twenty or so countries, together with
“Yenza. Make it!”, which looks in greater depth at daily innovation in African design
from a maker’s point of view: “self made objects from self made homes”.
This is a moment of growth and creative ferment in many parts of the African
continent with a shared focus on design’s anticipatory role and a search for the
best combination of the functional, useful and aesthetic for future generations.
The “Africa Design Award” aims specifically at enhancing new African talent, with