Design in Johannesburg

• Email
• Tweet
• Print

Nelson Mandela Bridge - iconic architecture

© Johannesburg Tourism Company

Design in Johannesburg is easy to find if you visit one of the many design districts all over the city. At the Design Quarter in Fourways you’ll find the flagship stores all of the major décor retailers such as Woolworths, Boardmans, Mr Price Home and @home.

The boutique stores of Parkhurst are the place to shop if you're looking for exclusive designs that make an individual statement. Closer to Johannesburg, find vintage treasures at the ecclectic Bamboo Centre, and retro-chic glamour lives on at 44 Stanley Avenue, a complex of about 40 speciality boutiques.

At the Maboneng Precinct in downtown Jozi and Juta Street in Braamfontein, edgy urban and vintage South African design rubs shoulders with Afro haute couture in the ateliers of the city’s top contemporary fashion and interior designers.

In Johannesburg, design is heavily influenced by the vibrancy of the city. Top hotels and homes are as likely to include items of high design as they are to feature the work of local beaders, weavers and other craftspeople.

In Sandhurst, world-famous South African interior designer, Stephen Falcke, created the now famous interior of the Saxon Hotel. He covered one wall of the lobby with floor-to-ceiling  traditional woven baskets. In Sandton’s Da Vinci hotel, Falcke installed a wall frieze in the entrance using the work of an artist who works in melted plastic trash.

Johannesburg designers to look out for include Dokter and Misses at 44 Stanley, Joe Paine at Co-op in Braamfontein and Tonic Design in Parktown North. These 3 have established distinctive design signatures that, while uniquely South African, are also world-class. Much of their work is sold internationally.

Entropy at The Bamboo Centre stocks a variety of local designers, including the work of Raw Studios in Pretoria. It has created an elegant and ergonomic system of pine plywood designs. Objekt in Parktown North stocks unique timber designs by the Goet design studio.