The Fringe: Cape Town's creative hub

Cape Town has been expanding east for a while, Woodstock has seen a revival of note and now the area that links the city to District Six and Woodstock is fast becoming the creative hub of the region.

Long a neglected part of the city the East Precinct has always formed part of the fringe of the city centre, it is now formally being called The Fringe: Cape Town's Innovation District and the vision for the project has been to create "the premier African environment for design, media and ICT innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship".

The project was conceived in 2007 and is heavily supported by the provincial government of the Western Cape's Department of Economic Development and Tourism through its Cape Catalyst Initiative. The area, home to restaurants, clubs and a host of small businesses is already coming alive at night and now the business and entrepreneurial potential of the city's creative inhabitants have a hub, where collaboration and networking will hopefully replace the once divided, albeit super-talented creative industry in Cape Town.

Cape Town's central city has an estimated 1 000 creative enterprises based in the area, employing about 18 000 people. Industries cover almost all the creative niches including fashion, furniture, film, architecture, advertising, music and IT.

Residents already in The Fringe include those creative bakers, Charley's Bakery, Woodhead's Leather Merchants, started by an ex-Cape Town mayor in the late 1800s, Assembly, QuePasa and the old faithful, Dias Tavern.

Businesses include The Open Innovation Studio, a social entrepreneurship environment and two creative sector bodies. The Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) and the Cape Fashion Council (both set up with government and private sector involvement to further sector development in the province).

The organisations are jointly housed in a new facility in Harrington Street that houses a Creative Enterprises Training Unit.  The area is also home to a range of small- and medium-sized design and ICT firms.  Most importantly the presence nearby of design - related educational institutions - in particular Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) makes this an environment ready for the science park model, on which the concept is based.

The borders of the area are Roeland and Darling Streets, Buitenkant and Canterbury Streets, and the area also includes a strip of land, which connects it to CPUT from Longmarket through to Tenant Street.

An exciting part of the development is the planned makeover of the The Granary, an important heritage building. The building, once revamped, will be anchored by the Bandwidth Barn (BWB) which is expected to take more than 2000m² from September this year. BWB is also a sector body which has been supporting the ICT sector since 2000 and is an internationally recognised and highly successful business incubation facility.

The Fringe is forming an integral part of the city's bid to be crowned World Design Capital in 2014 (WDC2014). Cape Town already has a reputation as a design hub and the annual Design Indaba is one of the leading design gatherings in the world with world class speakers and descending on Cape Town each year. The Fringe should cement that reputation and take it to another level, winning WDC2014 would help elevate Cape Town's status in the international design world and bring further attention to the creative side of Cape Town and the unlimited potential that she holds within.

WDC2014 is designated biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) to cities that are dedicated to using design for social, cultural and economic development. The project is focussing on a number of issues, including placing high importance on attractive lifestyle elements and meeting and networking opportunities.

The concept can only be successfully implemented with people buy-in and that is why the connection of The Fringe to the CPUT and easy access to the city, hopefully combined with efficient inner city transport services, can make this once vibrant , then derelict, and now vibrant again part of Cape Town an internationally recognised creative hub.

If the city goes ahead with its densification programme, which would see an additional 100 000 people living in the area from the city centre to Salt River, this region could become a new social and business hub revolving around creative industries.

Get commercial property news by email

Free alerts when we publish — pick a focus or get everything, unsubscribe in one click. Subscribe »