Design as an Optimistic Act

​Design as an Optimistic Act - is our first physical exhibition, hosted as part of Design Week South Africa - inviting you to experience the imaginative potential of African architecture across rural villages, townships, cities, and international sites.

​This tactile exhibit offers an immersive journey through the NowNow Competition’s 40 Honourable Mentions, collected across four thematics over the past two years, each rethinking how we live, learn, and shape space.

​Rooted in the notion of “Design as an Optimistic Act,” the exhibition plays on the layered meaning of “now now,” a phrase blending urgency, presence, and the playfulness of African time. Visitors are invited to step inside, touch, feel, and discuss ideas that reveal not just the design, but its intention,  why these competitions and places matter.

​Hosted by the team behind Pot Plant Club and Babbi Deli & Bar on Bree Street, the event opens their space to new intersections of design, as we look ahead - we share a collective space for remembering futures, reclaiming the optimism and energy of African cities, and affirming that the next great idea can come from Khayelitsha, Gaborone, Langa, or just down the road.