Architect Christian Benimana and fashion designers Laduma Ngxokolo and Selly Raby Kane, three WDCD-alumni, are among the African designers who in partnership with Design Indaba collaborate on a new collection for furniture retailer IKEA. The all-African collection was announced yesterday.
Designers from South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Angola, Ivory Coast and Rwanda will gather during the Design Indaba conference from 1 till 3 March in Cape Town. Together with IKEA’s in-house designers they will work on a series of domestic products expected to reach the shops in 2019.
Affirming
‘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,’ Ravi Naidoo, founder of Design Indaba and also a speaker at WDCD, told Dezeen.
In addition to the above mentioned, the list of collaborating designers includes Bethan Rayner and Naeem Biviji (Studio Propolis), Bibi Seck, duo Hend Riad and Mariam Hazem (Reform), the architects Issa Diabaté and Paula Nascimento, Renee Rossouw, and Sindiso Khumalo. They will work together with IKEA’s Hanna Dalrot, Johanna Jelenik, Kevin Gouriou and Mikael Axelsson.
Curious
‘The creative explosion which is taking place in several cities around Africa right now is something IKEA is curious about,’ IKEA’s design manager Marcus Engman said to Dezeen. ‘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.’
Engman and Naidoo met last June in Amsterdam when they both were in the jury for the WDCD Refugee Challenge and we’re tempted to think the idea for the Africa collection originated then and there.