A new circular makerspace, a 1 000 square meter innovation workshop and learning centre in partnership with the Craft and Design Institute (CDI), a non-profit company, has been unveiled at the V&A Waterfront.
The space, hailed as a "creative playground," is set to become a focal point for the Mother City’s push into the circular economy. It was launched on the first floor of the Cruise Terminal at the Waterfront on Tuesday, May 26.
The Waterfront-funded initiative, operated by CDI, creates a new platform for circular making, creative enterprise, and sustainable growth. It offers designers, artisans, students, and innovators access to tools and technology to produce products from recycled materials, experiment with sustainable production techniques, and showcase circular design in action.
This facility includes a service station and maker space focused on supporting hundreds of designers, makers, inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs to develop new products and services, build sustainable businesses, and rethink design and manufacture for people and the planet.
Waterfront programme manager for social inclusion and placemaking, Henry Mathys, highlighted the precinct's commitment to leveraging its assets to stimulate meaningful progress towards circularity, noting the new space as a "living, breathing legacy."
CDI founding group chief executive officer (CEO), Erica Elk, emphasised the organisation’s 25-year history of unlocking systemic change.
She explained that the makerspace is the logical next step, building on the success of their previous facility by continuing to absorb the risk and cost of research and development (R&D) for small businesses, facilitating design thinking, and sparking innovation.
"People come to us when what they think is their problem or their idea, their issue, their challenge, they don't always realise that they've arrived at our doors, bringing all of their advantage, all of their disadvantage, their social and economic circumstances, their history and their future," she said.
Elk said that they build an ecosystem where the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
"Business owners need to be agents of their change," she said.
The launch also celebrated a long-standing partnership. Mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, and head of the Jobs Fund, Najwah Allie-Edries, spoke of a collaborative enterprise development or workforce initiative designed to tackle unemployment through catalytic funding and public-private partnerships.
The Jobs Fund was established by the South African National Treasury in 2011 to combat unemployment.
Both acknowledged the CDI's profound impact on job creation and economic development, particularly among youth and women-owned businesses.
Vos said it was a prime location at the V&A Waterfront’s dedicated cruise terminal, and that it is expected to be a major catalyst, providing local entrepreneurs with the resources, mentorship, and market access needed to grow sustainable businesses and integrate African makers into global value chains.
Allie-Edries said that CDI's success demonstrated the power of partnerships.
"Today, we are seeing those ripple effects extend into the broader creative economy ecosystem represented by the CDI. This is what catalytic public finance is meant to achieve: connected ecosystems of opportunity that create lasting economic participation and sustainable livelihoods.”
The institute has leveraged over R200m in direct investment into local small businesses and helped enable additional investment in excess of R420m, while stimulating the creation of thousands of sustainable jobs.
CDI serves a membership base of more than 8 600 enterprises.
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