[Cape Town, 13 October 2014] The V&A Waterfront's new R50-million Watershed development embodies urbanity in an innovative, light-filled space that is the perfect showcase for the craft and design tenants who now call it home.

The street-styled market opened its doors to the public on Thursday, 9 October, replacing the previous Blue Shed Craft Market and Wellness Centre and combining the Red Shed tenants. Curator Trevyn McGowan and her team at Source have navigated the evolution of the market to ensure the Watershed's tenant product offering and range focuses on artisans and designers, presenting the very best of the continent under one roof.

The airy new Watershed is 50% more spacious and a lot brighter, with light streaming in through a 100m-long skylight and a glass façade overlooking the Robinson Dry Dock and Table Mountain.

Inside, the Watershed is perfectly designed to showcase the quality products all creatively designed, beautifully handcrafted and produced with the warmth and spirit of Africa. Fashion nestles comfortably alongside works of art, precision-made furniture, intricately crafted jewellery, rich textiles, soft furnishings, ceramics, accessories, contemporary curios and much, much more.

The open-ended Watershed can be accessed via entrances facing the Two Oceans Aquarium on the one side and Jou Ma se Comedy Club on the other.

The south-facing glass façade also offers unparalleled views over the Robinson Dry Dock towards Table Mountain. Dating back to 1882, the dock is one of the oldest of its kind in the world still in daily use. The working nature of this historic dry dock is in perfect juxtaposition to the crafted wares offered by the 150 traders inside the Watershed.

A dedicated wellness area will open mid-November on the mezzanine level.

The Watershed

17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront

Trading hours: 10am to 7pm daily

Issued on behalf of:

Carla White

PR & Communications Manager

V&A WATERFRONT

Tel: 021 408 7631

Email: cwhite@waterfront.co.za

The V&A Waterfront Watershed

The curator

In March 2014, Trevyn McGowan was appointed as the Curator for the new Watershed. McGowan, the creative force behind Source, is a formidable player in the South African design scene, and has played a pivotal role in promoting South African design to the global marketplace.

Since 2003, Trevyn and Julian McGowan have been responsible for transforming the South African design landscape by creating the proper infrastructures to develop and promote local design. As founders of Source, Southern Guild, the Design Foundation, and orchestrators of Design Network Africa, they have worked with innumerable designers and artisans and are responsible for the majority of exports of African design product to the global marketplace. They have recently earned a place on Art and Auctions “Power 100” global list of the most influential players in the art world, and on the City Press list “100 World Class South Africans”. In February 2014, the McGowans launched the first international design fair in Africa, GUILD.

On her appointment and future collaboration with the V&A Waterfront, Trevyn explained, “Southern African design has a unique place in the global market. Our designers follow a path with provenance, exploring their own identity and cultural history and their products carry a fertile and complex narrative. It is this point of difference that makes South African products so appealing and for over 10 years, we have been dedicated to growing an international footprint for many of our designers through the most respected retailers in the world. Our aim for this space is to bring this focus home, and to build our artisans and designers reputations for a local audience.”

 The development

The transformation of the building has realised a better use of the double volume heights utilising the existing structure. With the incorporation of the existing historical Workshop 17 space:

The Watershed offers more than 1 500 square metres of trading space.

• Brickwork in the gables on the ends of the building has been replaced by translucent sheeting, again allowing natural light to flood what was a dark space.
• A 45m × 45m mezzanine has been suspended from the roof trusses, and will form a socialisation and event space, offering public access to the viewing decks. The space will see an element of greening with the inclusion of indoor trees.
• Architect Heinrich Wolff's design has ensured the area will become a natural walkway that would greatly benefit the surrounding environment and provide a far more effective urban connection.

 The history

What once was a power station has become a powerhouse of design and creativity, celebrating the best of South Africa for the future.

The background

The results of a 2012 economic impact study into the economic contribution made by the V&A Waterfront to the city over ten years, showed the Waterfront made a major contribution to enterprise development.  Through making retail facilities available to small businesses they have created a platform for thousands of people to market themselves and their products.

The study, conducted by economists from Economics Information Services (EIS), also included a look at the Waterfront's impact on small businesses (SMEs).

Many of the crafters and entrepreneurs come from disadvantaged backgrounds with low levels of education and skills. In addition to creating employment for themselves, many use local manpower to produce their goods and in this way the local economy is further enhanced.

Each trader is inspiring, has triumphed and is a success story in their own right. Some migrate to larger premises and some even move to entirely new locations, which is part of the evolutionary business model envisaged since inception by the V&A Waterfront. Aside from adding a colourful and innovative component to the retail mix, crafters are given opportunities to grow and migrate to bigger premises in Victoria Wharf. Success stories include retailers such as Naartjie Clothing, Nocturnal Affair, Flowers Forever, Jewellery Art by Simon, Indygo, Carol Nevin Designs, Bijoux Fantasy, The Tie Stop, and Aromatic Apothecary.

Prior to the development of the new Watershed craft market there were 144 enterprise development stalls, which were divided into barrows and stalls at the Red Shed and at the Blue Shed Craft Market.

The V&A Waterfront has actively managed its mix of tenants to ensure on-going sustainability and leans away from too many franchises and chain stores. A distinction is also made between those tenants who pay fixed rent, made up primarily of offices and larger commercial concerns, while retail tenants generally pay a variable rent based on their turnover. In this way, smaller businesses can afford to be based at the Waterfront.