On
a sweltering Saturday morning a disparate group of people sit on camping chairs
and yoga mats in the parking lot in front of Charly’s Bakery, in what is known
as Cape Town’s Fringe District. They are
plagued by beggars asking for money and food, as surely only a religious cult
out to save the world would gather for hours in a circle like this. This
perception is not too far off, if design could be considered a religion. The
group consists of mainly design professionals, with anthropologists, writers, engineers
and business people thrown into the mix. Their mission is to make Cape Town a
better place through design. They call themselves the Design Can Do Collective.
The
story, at least for Cape Town, starts in November, when Design Can Do founder Jiwon Park (Rhode Island School of Design) and Yoon Bahk (Royal College
of Art) hosted the second Design Can Do
workshop (the first having happened a
few months before in Seoul) in Cape Town. The workshop is based on the 36 + 36
principle, ie 36 people working in teams, for 36 hours. Jiwon and Joon have
designed an extensive workshop toolkit, which is not only beautiful to look at,
it also works like a charm! The steps followed in the workshop (initiate, inspire, distill, ideate, develop and
disseminate) are by all means not new to those that are already familiar with
the principles of design thinking and brainstorming. But coupled with a
detailed manual, a massive stack of quirky lateral thinking cards, militant time-keeping
and experienced and trained facilitators, the results the groups presented within
36 hours were astounding.
To participate in the
workshop one had to apply with an application form paired with examples of ones
work. Not only designers could apply, in fact a wide range of professionals is more
ideal. The final 36 participants represented
all races, sexes, ages and professions, the main requirement the organizers
identified in all of them was a genuine interest in making a contribution to society. Jiwon and
Yoon’s local partners are experienced design facilitators Andrea Broom and Suné
Stassen, also known as The Rock City Foundation, who were tasked with identifying
the perfect 36, finding a venue, and all other organizational tasks.
The brief the teams were given was to design a solution to enhance social
interaction, taking non-motorized transport (such as skating) into account, in
the Fringe district. During the course of 36 hours, there were regular meals,
guided tours of the Fringe, inspiring talks and even a midnight skating
demonstration, but no sleep. In between all these activities, teams brainstormed
an idea that addressed the brief, made a mini-prototype, and formulated a
professional presentation. Late on a Sunday afternoon they presented to city
stakeholders and industry big-shots.
The workshop was followed the following day by a seminar at Truth Coffee
in Buitenkant Street that was open to the public. What was really impressive
was that the teams are so passionate about their ideas
that they didn’t waste any time in developing them further, also in starting to
look for sponsorships and local crafts people to implement, hence the follow-up
workshops in front of Charly’s Bakery. Sponsors have the opportunity to invest
in concepts that have already been thoroughly researched and developed and with
stakeholder approval.
