Design Indaba 2017

Exhibition: IKEA x Design Indaba Collaboration - We’ve drawn from our extensive network of designers, architects and creatives from South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Angola, Ivory Coast and Rwanda to collaborate with IKEA around modern rituals and the importance they play in the home.

“The creative explosion which is taking place in several cities around Africa right now is something IKEA is curious about. We want to learn from this and spread it to the rest of the world. Working together with these designers and creatives gives us the opportunity to do so,” says Marcus Engman, Design Manager at IKEA.

Bethan Rayner and Naeem Biviji,Bibi Seck, Christian Benimana Hend Riad and Mariam Hazem, Issa Diabaté, Laduma Ngxokolo, Paula Nascimento, Renee Rossouw, Selly Raby Kaneand Sindiso Khumalo will be working with Mikael Axelsson, Kevin Gouriou, Hanna Dalrot and Johanna Jelenik from IKEA. The designers will meet up to work on the collection during the Design Indaba Conference in Cape Town 1 to 3 March 2017, and the collection will be ready to launch in 2019.

“It’s affirming for the world’s biggest furniture and homeware store to partner with Design Indaba to curate their first African collection, and we have learnt so much from the collaboration to date – the designers and ourselves. The scale at IKEA is staggering, yet they are still true to their founding principles, with which we find such symmetry. They look towards democratizing design, and are happy to be infiltrated by external ideas! And we love their credo: a better everyday life for everyone. Now, it will be also inspired by urban Africa, and our intrepid pan-continental group of reformers, thinkers, makers and activists. Can’t wait for the launch,” says Ravi Naidoo, founder of Design Indaba.