Far from the city’s clatter, a small circle of designers, makers and thinkers gathered at The Kitchen Garden, a modern farmhouse in the Cradle of Humankind, to launch Design Week SA (DWSA) not with noise, but with stillness.
Created as SA’s answer to Milan or Melbourne’s iconic citywide design weeks, Design Week SA, which took place in October in Cape Town and Johannesburg, is a platform dedicated to celebrating SA design as both process and purpose. Beyond a week of events, it cultivates dialogue, collaboration and inclusivity within the creative community through industry-led activations and open exchange. This year’s opening, The Design Table, embodied that philosophy.
Gravel crunched underfoot as we were welcomed at the entrance by Zanele Kumalo, DWSA curator and Soho House membership liaison. Clad in a breezy UNI FORM dress and oversized spectacles, she guided us past the greenhouse flora toward the gathering.
Here, we met the curator of the afternoon, Kamo Mafokwane. An interior designer and founder of multidisciplinary studio NAIA Atelier, Mafokwane works between Paris and SA, her practice defined by an unhurried, deeply intentional approach to design. NAIA Atelier specialises in full-service interior projects across residential, hospitality and commercial spaces worldwide, each rooted in feeling and form.
Together, the three brands embodied DWSA’s mission to “celebrate design as an expression of creative thinking and making”.
Soho House, founded in 1995 by entrepreneur Nick Jones, has long maintained its reputation as a global club for creatives, with each House designed with a sense of place and featuring artworks and interiors that celebrate local artisans. Kumalo represents the company’s Cities Without Houses (CWH) membership, which allows creatives access to global Soho Houses when they travel and to be part of the Soho House community, experiencing curated events and benefits in cities where there is no physical House yet.
“Highlighting and supporting creatives who are putting SA design on the map is key to DWSA and Soho House is a community that brings these same creatives together,” Kumalo explained. “The Design Table invited architects, interior designers, artists and musicians to come together, in the same way you would meet interesting, diverse creatives at one of our Global Houses or gathered at similar CWH events.”
At NAIA Atelier, there is a shared reverence for intention and community. Recent projects include residential developments such as Notting Mews in London and Casa Med, as well as commercial spaces such as Mulberry Park and The Parks in Johannesburg.
The collaboration began simply: Kumalo approached Mafokwane with the idea of opening DWSA meaningfully. Collaborating with Studio Botanicus, the concept evolved over months into The Design Table. “It was a desire to gather changemakers in the industry and bring them together to reflect on their own beginnings and translate that reflection into something tactile,” Mafokwane added.
After introductions, guests were guided to the farmhouse kitchen, where scented salts awaited us for a ritual hand-washing before we moved into the seating area. Spread across a long wooden table lay several unbound A5 journals, coloured threads and fabrics, a needle and a small block of beeswax.
We were led through the binding process by the team from Pulp Paperworks, a small bookbinding collective and micro-publisher based in 44 Stanley, Johannesburg. Led by the theme of “The House That I Would Like To Build”, “it set the tone to touch on subjects like collaboration and what it means to want to build something like a house, whether physical, emotional or mental”, Kumalo noted.
The journals, Mafokwane revealed, served two purposes: as metaphor and as mindfulness. They were a visual representation of each guest’s dreams, desires and plans, a symbolic blueprint for building our own “houses”. Beyond metaphor, the act of binding demanded presence; the steady rhythm of needle through paper coaxed quiet focus, inviting us to slow down and create something personal in a fast-paced world.
Laughter and gentle chatter filled the space as we followed instructions, weaving threads imbued with our chosen intentions of growth, self-connection, grounding, stability and clarity.
“Design begins long before the first object is placed,” Mafokwane said. “It starts with a feeling, a story and the heart. We wanted to create an experience that invited pause, where every detail, from thread to texture to slow gathering, carried meaning. It asked why we design and where that intention comes from. For us, the answer is always from within. Intention wasn’t an afterthought; it was the foundation.”
Once our bound journals had been collected, we gathered in the kitchen, where a glorious feast awaited. The spread, carefully curated by Botanicus, a collective of floral stylists and event curators, was a study in sensory pleasure.
Homemade tomato jam lent sweetness to nutty cheeses; fresh bread was slathered with herb-infused whipped butter and topped with delicate slices of cured beef prosciutto. It was a meal that tasted of care, community and craft, a reminder that design, at its essence, connects us through shared experience.
In a world obsessed with acceleration, The Design Table invited the opposite: what happens when we slow down? It is a question many SA creatives seem ready to answer, as slow-made boutiques, ateliers and collectives continue to flourish. The event underscored the importance of platforms like DWSA in nurturing that growth, fostering dialogue, collaboration and recognition within the country’s design landscape.
“DWSA has already received global attention and acclaim and continues to feature in international publications like Dezeen, Monocle and recently, a Salone del Mobile newspaper special,” Kumalo said. “We have a very engaged and talented design community in SA that I find incredibly inspiring and I always look forward to spending more time and exchanging ideas with them.”
“SA design is textured with heritage, resilience and deep innovation,” Mafokwane added. “Our voice is soulful and nuanced, with something to teach and something to share. In the global conversation, we want to see design move closer to truth and meaning, and SA designers can help lead that shift with honesty and heart.”
In a world that often equates progress with pace, The Design Table reminded us that design, and perhaps life itself, begins in the pause.
Find out more about the Cities Without Houses membership here.
