May Supper Club with Ilze Wolff: Reflections

Breyani, sago pudding and boeber on a rainy night in May

Ilze Wolff’s menu choice was a perfect for a Cape Town wintry night in May! The context within which we engaged in conversation with Ilze about her life in the city – as an architect, a business co-owner and  mother of three – was warm and inviting.

Ilze offered several issues for discussion and reflection. She prompted us to think about what it meant to be a woman in this particularly male-oriented profession; what was the meaning of ‘people-centred’ architectural design; what was the responsibility of architects in redesigning the Apartheid city, and how could transformation within the profession be scaled up and escalated?

While acknowledging the immense scale of intervention needed to deconstruct the geography of our divided city, Supper Clubbers left the building feeling hopeful that the support for change was growing incrementally, and that they could make a real if small difference.