May Supper Club with Ilze Wolff
May 2018: Ilze Wolff
‘Conversations in and about our city’
This month’s Supper Club guest who will reflect on the 2018 theme, is Cape Town architect, Ilze Wolff.
Ilze is currently an architecture fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research, UWC and is exploring the potential for cross disciplinary spatial practice while designing an arts space for the Centre. Wonderfully, she was one of five women on the shortlist for the 2018 international Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture by the Architectural Review.’
“Wolff founded Wolff Architects with her husband and business partner, Heinrich, and their work has been built and exhibited around the world – heralded for its innovative approach to working collaboratively across disciplines to create ‘human-focused’ design.
She says: ‘I think architecture is facing a few challenges. One is: how do we intervene wisely? How do we redevelop ethically in neighbourhoods that are growing, but are identified purely as commercial opportunities for private wealth? Of wanting to address urban renewal with the consciousness of also restoring collectivity and land restitution.” (Source: Huffington Post)
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The Museum’s theme for the 2018 Supper Clubs- ‘Conversations in and about our city’ will provide the backdrop for Ilze’s reflections. Thinking about ‘our city’ is enough to spark impassioned responses. It is likely that questions of clarity about whose city and which boundaries are being referred to, will be asked.
Contesting claims often come up against each other. They include contestations between current ownership as expressed through title deed, as opposed to historic ownership as expressed through relationship to geography; between newer stories of the city obliterating older ones rather than co-existing with them.
What does it mean for Cape Town to be a home for all? The rhetoric is desirable but hardly tangible. The daily reality of many city ‘users’ is as part of a mass exodus of service workers at the end of the day, navigating unreliable and unsafe transport to reach their homes. The added current challenge of ensuring that homes are supplied with water for the family’s needs further compromise a good quality of life.
Please join us on Thursday 31 May at 18h00, for an interesting evening of good food and even better conversation. The cost for the 3-course meal- with lamb breyani / vegetarian breyani as the main course and sago pudding with custard for dessert – is R 150 per person, with children’s meals costing R 75. Booking is essential. Please call Chantal Delilie at 021 4667200, or email her at reception@districtsix.co.za to book.
Please save the dates for June Supper Club: Thursday 28 June