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Designing better sanitation services in informal settlements: Cape Town’s R138m Special Jobs Creation Programme has real potential to add impetus

Cape Town is currently bidding for the title of World Design Capital 2014, to be announced on 26 October. Cape Town’s bid has focused on making design relevant for citizens and communities.

One of the key design challenges facing us as a city is providing decent and safe sanitation services…

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Designing a fairer future – why Cape Town is bidding for World Design Capital 2014

I can now understand that Twitter was invented for people who start writing a blog and then run out of time to keep them going. I have just spent a whirlwind three days with the World Design Capital 2014 evaluation team. At the same time, the Western Cape Economic Development Agency (EDA)…

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Paradise Road: An inspiring story about Zimbabweans in Cape Town

Paradise Road: An inspiring story about Zimbabweans in Cape Town by Anton Crone

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Five reasons why making the World Design Capital 2014 shortlist is a good thing for Cape Town

Congratulations to the cities of  Dublin and Bilbao for making the World Design City 2014 shortlist with Cape Town. We are in good company, and look forward to a friendly contest.

There are five reasons why making the shortlist is good for Cape Town, regardless of the final outcome in October:

Power

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Look east for innovation (that’s Cape Town’s East City!)

Here is a great article on The Fringe – Cape Town’s Innovation District in Cape Town’s East City by Richard Holmes in the latest edition of Indwe Magazine, just in time for the announcement on Tuesday about the World Design Capital 2014 shortlist:

Mother City looks East

“The…

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World Design Capital 2014 deadline for shortlisted cities draws near

The Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, and the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, joined together yesterday to lend their support to Cape Town’s bid for World Design Capital 2014. On 21 June, Icsid will announce the names of the three cities (out of 56 bidding cities)…

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Observatory, Cape Town, down memory lane

I found myself going down memory lane last week when I was interviewed for a film about the life and times of the suburb of Observatory, Cape Town. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I lived in three different student houses in Observatory (1 Trill Road, 12/12a Alfred Street and 14…

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Cape Town World Design Capital 2014 Bid – decision next week!

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Update from Icsid: WDC Selection Committee Members will convene on Thursday 09 June 2011 to determine the cities that will be shortlisted for the WDC 2014 designation. Applicant cities will be informed shortly after this date to confirm if they have made the shortlist. 
  
The exact dates…

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At street level, where public and private spaces intersect, things get really interesting…

This is a copy of my talk at the opening of Along these City Streets, an exhibition by Mary Visser currently on at the AVA Gallery at 35 Church Street, Cape Town.

Mary Visser has produced a most beautiful set of paintings for her new exhibition – Along these City

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Next Cape Town Design Network event on 19 May to focus on World Design Capital 2014 Bid – all welcome

Details of venue and speakers here

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Big Ride In welcomes Tour d’Afrique and helps promote ‘active transport’ in Cape Town

 A bunch of Capetonians on bicycles, skateboards and other forms of non-motorised transport took part in a Big Ride In to welcome the Tour d’Afrique riders who arrived in Cape Town after cycling 12 000km through Africa. 

One of the host organisations was the Bicycling Empowerment Network (BEN),…

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The final silence. RIP Zim Ngqawana, a great South African musician

In a reflective interview at the time of his 50th birthday, Ngqawana told the M&G that he had started thinking about death as he got older. He said “death can be studied through the silent moment after every exhalation when you breathe”. He described it musically, as the “silence between…

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