Hot designs out of Africa

Design Indaba always means discovery. A bunch of creative people from every imaginable field descend on Cape Town. For three days, they present talks about their projects, philosophy, and process; then local designers show their wares at an expo.

As I have for several years, I covered the 2014 Indaba for Dwell’s website, first with a slideshow about Thomas Heatherwick, his commission for the just-announced Museum of Contemporary African Art, and London’s Garden Bridge. Then I moved on to the showroom floor, talking to exhibitors in a quest for the best looking and most useful new items by all-African designers.

This mohair bike was a real-world mash-up of my interests in biking and knitting. Friday’s Indaba is always packed with students, and they took turns pedaling on a stationary bike to generate power for a knitting machine with an endless blue mohair scarf.