In Cape Town, some of the city’s most interesting interventions happen through subtle changes to the way people move through familiar places.
A new pedestrian lane at TenOnV in the CBD is doing just that. Called Between Two Suns, the permanent creation opens a previously closed edge of the development, creating a new route between upper Long Street, the Company’s Garden, and the surrounding network of streets and public spaces.
The project is a collaboration between property developer Blok, architects Two Five Five, and Durban-based creative studio Studio Kalki, bringing together architecture and public art in a way that feels integrated into the city.
At its centre is a bespoke ceramic installation by Studio Kalki, led by Nikhil Tricam and Nindya Bucktowar. The hand-crafted work is inspired by Cape Town's natural and built environment, drawing on fynbos, mountains, architecture, ocean, and the city's light.
The title, Between Two Suns, references the movement of the sun across the space. As daylight shifts throughout the day, it catches the hand-glazed ceramic surfaces differently, meaning the artwork is never really experienced in the same way twice.
Instead of functioning solely as a piece to be viewed, the artwork forms part of a passage that also incorporates seating, giving pedestrians a reason to pause.
For Studio Kalki, the project presented an opportunity to tell several Cape Town stories through material and design. The studio's approach to ceramics is known to have explored the relationship between craft, place, and contemporary South African identity – a direction that also saw Studio Kalki recognised as a nominee at the recent Design of the Year (DOTY) Awards.
The architecture of the intervention is understated. Two Five Five's approach was essentially to replace a boundary with a passage, changing the relationship between the development and the public side. In doing so, TenOnV becomes less of an isolated building and more of a participant in the pedestrian life of the surrounding neighbourhood – a small architectural gesture with a wider implication.
Perhaps that is what makes Between Two Suns interesting. Its success does not depend on people arriving just to see it. The intention is that it becomes part of the everyday: a shortcut on the way to the Company’s Garden, a pause between walks, or simply an unexpected encounter with art during a stroll through the city.
In a city where development can often feel disconnected from the public spaces around it, opening a route through a building – and making that route worth looking over – offers a more considered way of thinking about urban growth.
