Discover and learn about Cape Town’s Art Deco heritage on a walking tour organised by Culture Connect SA. The tour will cover everything from major landmark buildings to humble corner shops.
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Culture Connect SA was started by Kate Crane Briggs in 2012. The company organises events and tours that are focused on art, design and architecture. Their series of Art Deco architecture tours are led by Dr André van Graan who is a heritage architect and art deco expert.
Art Deco was a popular international design movement that reached its peak during the 1920s and 1930s. Its distinctive style is often associated with the decade known as the Roaring Twenties. Geometric repetition, simplicity, symmetry and the use of bold colours make it easy to recognize.
You’ll notice Art Deco’s influence sprinkled over many of Cape Town’s buildings and interiors.
Art Deco succeeded Art Nouveau and drew influence from many of its sources.
Kate Crane Briggs explains: “It borrowed from European historic styles which lent itself well to South Africa whose architecture was eclectic, derivative and hybrid pre-1930s. Art Deco flourished amid an existing Beaux-Arts classicism and the emerging, radical International Modern style.”
An architect known for his Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles was Raymond Hood. The tour will be accompanied by town and regional planner Tommy Brümmer who has set himself the challenge to find as many of Raymond Hood’s buildings as possible.
The walk will start at the Mullers building, located at 104 Longmarket Street just off Church Square in central Cape Town. Designed by Frank Spears in 1935, it still operates as an optometrist centre.
Details:
- Starting location: Mullers: 104 Longmarket Street, Church Square.
- Date: Wednesday 26 October
- Time: 5.15 pm
- Cost: R350
- RSVP: [email protected]
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Picture: Culture Connect SA / cultureconnectsa.com