The Cape Town Design Network has the pleasure to present Thingking's Lyall & Marc, a design team from Cape Town. The Pecha Kucha style talk was recorded at the Assembly night club in Cape Town in June 2011. Through a number of simple design interventions Thingking worked with Lorelle Bell and Safmarine to upgrade a community cycling centre in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Velokhaya, described as previously being a killing field, is a community road cycling and BMX hub. Slowly but surely the center is becoming a community hub, functioning not only in its intended capacity, but also as a sort of day-care facility, birthday venue and even a setting for music videos. The idea that Velokhaya should increasingly operate for the community, in conjunction with the prerogative of fostering pride as well as a sense of ownership, underpinned the design process. Therefore each design intervention required participation and direction in the formation stages from the users. This is what we did and a brief description of each intervention: Boamistura in conjunction with WriteonAfrica sketched out artwork that could then be co-painted by everyone at the centre. The artwork brightly transformed the entire centre into a massive billboard. Khayelitsha is hot and dry in summer so the design team installed a simple misting system that the riders and spectators could use to cool off on race days. Barrel braais (Bar-B-Q's) to cater for a large community event and a gas catering unit to get past the ...
Tags: Velokhaya, Cape Town, Bike, Project, Cape Town Design Network, Thingking, World Design Capital, 2014
