Cape Town's Design Language Is Written In Beads, Wire And Street Corners

Sisters Viveka and Rucita Vassen, founders of Ananta Design Studio in Cape Town, South Africa, are part of a generation changing how that work is seen. Their pieces — beaded lighting, sculptural furniture and collectible objects — move those techniques out of the street and into hotels, galleries and private collections.

A Cape Town Studio That Started in Stillness

Ananta began during lockdown, when both sisters paused and reconsidered what they wanted to build. "We were just experimenting, playing with materials and following instinct without the pressure of a specific outcome," Viveka says. Rucita describes the same period as unusually focused. "The stillness of lockdown created an unusual kind of alignment. A rare absence of noise, expectation and urgency."

The two came from different disciplines — Viveka from menswear and tailoring, working closely with factories and production systems; Rucita from graphic design and brand identity, with a growing interest in how people experience objects within a space. Being so creatively aligned, they always felt it was inevitable that they would build something together one day, though they assumed it would be in fashion. Instead, the shift came from recognising opportunities beyond their familiar disciplines, and from observing crafters and the extraordinary skills already present on the street.

Bead and wire artists had always been part of Cape Town 's visual landscape, but during lockdown the sisters started looking closer. "We became acutely aware of how vulnerable these informal craft economies are," Rucita says, "and how quickly they can be disrupted." What struck her was the contrast: objects that appear simple, yet require a high level of technical ability and intuition to produce. The decision crystallised when the first beaded samples arrived — side tables, lighting, objects that felt like something new. "It no longer felt like an idea," Viveka says. "It felt like a language we had tapped into." They launched in 2022 .

Cape Town as a Working Material

The city is both backdrop and infrastructure. "Cape Town doesn't have one defining visual identity," Rucita says. "It exists in the tension between many." Parts of it feel raw, expressive, unapologetically vibrant — deeply connected to the continent. Other parts are minimal, polished, interchangeable with any major design capital. "The most exciting work happens in that space," she says, "where informal handmade meets refined contemporary design."

What matters most, though, are the city's systems of making. "The artisans we work with hold generational knowledge," Viveka says. "Skills that have evolved over time yet remain largely informal." That informality is precisely what makes Cape Town distinct — and what gives Ananta its particular charge.

Building With Craft In Cape Town

The studio's process is built on exchange rather than extraction, and it starts early. "We involve our artisans from the very beginning, testing ideas directly in material," Viveka says. "There's a constant back-and-forth." During development, they meet to discuss ideas and explore how concepts can be translated into form — a loop of problem-solving where design objectives meet technical expertise. Alongside artisans, they also work with fabricators, CNC cutters, joiners and electricians to build the underlying structures onto which the craft is applied. The two worlds — technical and handmade — have to come together cohesively.

"We bring a design framework," Rucita says. "The artisans bring deep material knowledge and technical skill." Visibility is structural to that arrangement. "It's not about taking from a tradition," she says. "It's about building with it."

Identity, Memory And Translation In Cape Town

Both sisters grew up in Rylands, a small suburb in Athlone shaped by Cape Town's Indian community, and that environment sits underneath their visual language — not as literal reference but as instinct. "Our childhood was surrounded by Indian festivities and ceremonies," Viveka says. "Colour, detail, embellished sari fabrics, layered textures and a culture of celebration that embraced boldness without restraint."

"It emerges more instinctively than intentionally," Rucita says. "We're not trying to represent identity in a literal way. It surfaces in decisions around form, colour and material." At times, she adds, they only recognise those influences after the fact.

Value, Luxury and Recognition In Cape Town

As the work enters hospitality and collectible design spaces, questions of value become unavoidable. "The hardest part isn't creating the work," Rucita says. "It's making sure its value is properly understood." Craft is still too often positioned as decorative rather than as design in its own right — and for them, value runs deeper than finish. "It's time, skill, craftsmanship — but also the relationships behind it," she says. "The trust built with artisans, the knowledge exchanged, the evolution of the process." When craft is given the space to be explored and refined, she argues, it shifts into the realm of luxury — not as excess, but as depth.

Recognition has followed, including selection for Design Indaba Emerging Creatives and Création Africa. "It reinforced that what we are building has relevance," Viveka says. "It confirmed we are on the right track."

The Wondrous World Ahead From Cape Town And Beyond

Ananta, from Sanskrit, means infinite — and for the sisters it is structure, not branding. "It's about building a universe, not just a collection of objects," Viveka says. In five years, she sees the studio moving fluidly between collectible objects, spatial design, installations and cultural storytelling, with a growing push into conceptual art where craft techniques are used in more experimental ways. "It opens up space to explore heritage through a new lens," she says, "and to see what happens when craft, culture and contemporary art fully collide."

For Cape Town visitors, the sisters suggest beginning not in studios or galleries but in the informal craft environments where the language of making is lived rather than curated. You can DM their Instagram them to ask for some recommendations - but the streets in Cape Town are alive with interesting everything. Then the studio becomes the translation point. "There is design everywhere here," Viveka says. "It just doesn't always sit within formal definitions." Once seen, it is difficult to unsee.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com