Pioneering exhibition showcases how human creativity can tackle the challenge of tomorrow’s working world

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Design News in Art, Décor, Design

Upcycle

Upcycle aims to demonstrate how design has the potential to embrace circularity to shape more conscious workspaces. A pioneering response to the issue, it takes the form of a provocative exhibition to be staged in Cape Town, South Africa, and presented by leading global property development company JLL and its subsidiary, interior design firm Tétris Design and Build.

‘We see a brighter way forward for our clients, our people, our planet, and our communities… we’re unveiling opportunities that create a brighter future for all,’ JLL states.

Patrick Bongoy

Tétris, which creates commercial environments that are inspirational and sustainable, is deeply invested in defining what tomorrow’s workspaces will look like in our ever-changing society. JLL and Tétris have identified that we need to contend with how the agile reconfiguration of the workspace in the post-Covid world has led to a mounting tide of discarded office equipment and furniture that either languishes in storage, ends up on an over-supplied second-hand market, or worse – in landfill. In Tétris’s view, designers and artists play a critical role in imagining new possibilities that help shape what the future could be, which is why the company has invited a collective of leading creative minds to spotlight the issue and to prompt its own organisation and the broader industry to reconsider their role.

Upcycle intends to throw the bigger issues of sustainability and regenerative design into relief through the vehicle of unbounded creativity. Not limited by function and challenged to create a thought-provoking spectacle that will ignite powerful conversation, a select group of designers and artists, including members of Tétris’s own local and international teams, has been tasked with breathing bold new life into discarded office equipment and furniture pieces. With its progressive agenda of generating art installations that are designed to capture attention, Upcycle is set to be an intriguing affair.

Justus and Nisha van der Hoven

The exhibition’s participants include Congolese artist Patrick Bongoy, sisters Viveka and Rucita Vassen of Ananta Design Studio, Nisha and Justus van der Hoven of Hoven Design, Laurie Wiid of Wiid Design, Amaury Watine, who is the Creativity and Innovation Director Tétris EMEA, Adrian Davidson, Design Director Tétris EMEA, as well as two Senior Interior Designers from Tétris South Africa, Helen Wentzel and Tshepiso Lesufi.

The exhibition will be open to the public at Makers Landing at V&A Waterfront on 19 and 20 April 2024. On Friday 19 April, design students will be welcomed for a special student-focused day, and on Saturday 20 April there will be a free curated walkabout with the artists and designers at 11h00.