All set for Design Week South Africa 2025
For its second edition, the four-day programme introduces Morning Sessions, a new format that brings dialogue out of a formal stage and into the city’s cafes.
Each morning, from Thursday to Sunday (9:00 – 10:30am), leading creatives will share the ideas, challenges and inspirations driving their practice over coffee in intimate, relaxed gatherings — no slides, no presentations, just insight, curiosity and connection.
Curator of Morning Sessions, Simone Schultz shares, ‘With our inaugural Morning Sessions programme, we hope to encourage design discourse at its most human. We believe that the future of South African design won't be decided only in boardrooms or established institutions, but in these moments of generous exchange between creative practitioners and an engaged, culturally conscious audience.’
Keyes Art Mile, Victoria Yards and 44 Stanley, three of Johannesburg’s dynamic cultural precincts, will host an immersive programme of exhibitions, talks and pop-ups showcasing the breadth and diversity of African design.
Highlights in the Milpark complex include Africa Textile Talks at The Bioscope and The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, curated by Tandekile Mkize and presented by Twyg in partnership with The V&A Watershed, alongside an Ivorian jewellery pop-up at Yä-de, innovative lighting conversations at Wat Wat and The Story of Sari for Change installation, which reimagines heritage textiles into one-of-a-kind garments while celebrating the empowerment of women artisans.
In Rosebank, 223 Creative Hub will host a tufting workshop by Fybre Studios, while Keyes Art Mile has partnered with Blaque Inq Contemporaries for an exciting exhibition and artist walkabout, by visual artist Lehlogonolo Masoabi.
Victoria Yards will see a sustainable garden design workshop by Plenty Green Africa, a pop up by streetwear brand FRNDLY SA — with an exciting t-shirt collaboration with Design Week South Africa — and a multi-disciplinary exhibition, Price of Gold, by seven artists and four designers, including Jack Markovitz, Klein Muis and Francesco Mbele. Centred around an imagined future for the city of Johannesburg, the exhibition will also host talks from the artists and designers involved.
Across the road, at Nando’s Central Kitchen, Jozi My Jozi will be revealing their latest creative campaign, Babize Bonke – meaning ‘call everyone’. Featuring extraordinary local champions who are shaping Johannesburg from the ground up, the exhibition will be accompanied by a series of talks.
Around the rest of the city, workshops, studio open days and immersive experiences offer a deeper dive into the city’s design scene, while Soho House will host a curated salon in partnership with Perfect Hideaways. Visitors can also explore a hard-hat tour of a soon-to-open lifestyle development, intimate listening-room experiences, film screenings and Garden Day celebrations, among other surprises.
Meanwhile, in Soweto, Creative20 will launch The Annual Kasiology Festival in collaboration with Jozi My Jozi, marking a township-based celebration of design, creativity and lifestyle that coincides with the upcoming G20 Summit in South Africa.
“Both 44 Stanley and Keyes Art Mile embody the spirit of independent creativity and African innovation, making them natural partners for Design Week South Africa,” says Margot Molyneux, founder of Design Week South Africa. “We are thrilled to present activations that reflect the depth, diversity and energy of the continent’s design community — and to invite the world to see how South Africa’s designers are shaping the future.”
Design Week South Africa 2025 is curated by South Africans passionate about this country’s design sectors, the creative economy and growing pride and acknowledgement of South African and, more broadly African, design.
The core team comprises Margot Molyneux, Zanele Kumalo, Roland Postma and Simone Schultz, while a broader advisory team, including local and international industry leaders, has also been formed, with members announced later this month.
For more, go to https://www.designweeksouthafrica.com/.