cool, couture and everything in between: South African Law

This semester, we begin our Interior Design Studio IV course by designing a 17,000 sq ft two-story law firm (our biggest design project yet). It is an international law firm that has recently decided to open their first major office in the United States. They want their new office to represent the history and traditions of their home country, while celebrating their future in NYC.

Our first day of class, we chose out of a hat to see which country we would be designing for. Guess what?! I got the country of my choosing..South Africa! I should probably play the lotto more often, eh?

The most important part about this project lies in the space planning (of which I will update you on later in the game). But for me, I can't even get excited about a project without a few visuals first. Here's what I'm envisioning....


South African interior designer, Stephen Falcke, adorned this wall with traditional South African woven baskets. Talk about a statement wall!

Some sculptures I found on 1st Dibs

Wall mural by Willem Boshoff.

This piece, "gives a graphic representation of this dramatic vocal will and power. The necessity for driving home the messages of these slogans and chants no longer exists, and they too will be shelved in time. The thin horizontal lines of sheet-music run through the whole piece. They fence the slogans in and conceal an English translation, making for a ‘reading between the lines.’ The simple block-like type is an allusion to Ndebele wall-painting and the vertical ridges are intended to enhance the idea of ripples and reverberations. The work was begun on 2 September, 1997, ten years, to the day, after the famed purple rain incident took place in Cape Town. Police were spraying purple dye on protesters to mark them for later identification and arrest, away from the prying eye of the international press. One daring protester jumped on the water-car and turned the dye on the police. Soon after that graffiti appeared on the city walls and even on police vehicles which stated: The purple shall govern, a clever twist from the African Freedom Charter which states that the people shall govern."