You can only really know a place once you have lived there. Whether it’s your favourite restaurant, a busker you stopped to listen to, or a bench you love the view from, we’re looking for people who want to share their neighbourhood with us. We want to know your favourite things about your immediate neighbourhood. This could be anything: from something you pass every day on the way home, to something interesting you hope to see again. We’ll be choosing a different person from a different city each week to chat to us right here in our new Up My Street weekly feature. In the last few weeks we’ve walked around Riley Street, Vancouver and South West Corner, Adelaide, this week we head to South Africa.





Meet the Locals, Karl and Ida, K&i Design Studio
Since we started Boat Studio as a married couple, we’re always interested in meeting other couples who start creative projects together. Karl and Ida run K&i Design Studio in Studio Africa. Although they create work for both print and online, they believe in doing things the hands-on, handmade way, and it’s quite simply stunning. This conviction comes as a reaction to our increasingly digitalised existence, Karl and Ida longed to bring back some of the ‘realness’ and tactility that you can’t get virtually. Having left the UK, the duo set up shop in Capetown just over a year ago and have already been making waves. Awarded with the Design Indaba Emerging Creative title, two of the pieces designed by K&i Design Studio in 2011 have also been entered in to the 2012 Loerie Awards. For this week’s Up My Street, Karl and Ida walk us around their neighbourhood – Muizenberg. A word of warning – if your weather is as crappy as ours in London you might not want to scroll down to the last picture.




Which neighbourhood (and city) do you live in?
We live in Muizenberg, on the southern peninsula of South Africa, 30 minutes drive from Cape Town city.


What is the name of your street?
Cromer Road

Where do you spend most of your time?
In front of the computer, doing what we love most – designing!


What is your favourite local business?
We have two… Skermunkil, a fantastic jewellery studio on Palmer road, a 5-minute stroll from our house. Owned and run by like-minded locals Rory and Marietjie, plus their dog ‘Happy’.
Another favourite is Wawa. They make wooden surfboards, each one beautifully hand crafted.





Where can you get the best local bargain?
The best local bargain is the beautiful False Bay coastline, over 20km of undisturbed beach, at no cost. Now that’s a bargain.


Who is the most inspiring person in your neighborhood?
There are a lot of artists and creative’s living in Muizenberg, it’s great to be surrounded by these creatives and are inspired by all. We’ve recently signed up for a community project to plant a veggie garden in an unused piece of land. There is a huge gap between rich and poor in SA and there are so many homeless people, a lot of them being children with no place to sleep and no food to fill their bellies. The idea is to get as many locals in the community involved to help educate these street kids on how to grow and maintain sustainable food sources.


Where is your favourite place to go on a sunny day?
The beach.


Where is your favourite place to go on a rainy day?
Rattlesnake Books. Andrew, a very amusing English chap owns the spot, the bookstore has a wide selection of Africana, antiques and original SA art literature. It’s a tiny little store not even big enough to swing a cat but you can still get lost in there.


What is your favourite secret place/thing?
Muizenberg/Kalk Bay Mountain is a great day out; you’ll discover an enchanted forest, waterfalls, caves and a natural amphitheatre. At the top of the mountain you have the most amazing views, where you can see the Atlantic ocean on the one side and the Indian ocean on the other. It’s not really a secret, but every time we hike up there it’s totally quite and we don’t see anyone for hours, which makes it feel secret to us.





Where is your favourite place to eat?
Kalky’s, a well-known fish and chips shop with a very vibrant atmosphere about it. They’ve been stationed at Kalk Bay harbour feeding locals and visitors for decades, there’s always a queue, which is normally a good sign. After our meal and drinks we always amble along the harbour wall to say hello to the resident seals. They don’t venture too far because they’re always being fed the scraps from the local fishermen.


Where is your favourite place to drink?
The Blue Bird Garage Friday Market. Good food, good tunes, good atmosphere, good people, good beer… perfect. And even better, it’s only a 2-minute walk for us.


Is there any street art in your neighbourhood you like?
There is a fish painted on a public house on the beach front (facing the sea). We only saw it the other day, usually there are so many people around so we’ve never noticed it before. It’s so funny when you discover something new in your neighborhood, when it’s actually not new at all! There’s also a few rad graffiti posters up in the village streets.


What is your favourite memory since you have lived on your street?
We were living in the UK (London) prior to relocating to South Africa and have only been living on our street for just over a year. So, our favourite memory this far would be the day we lit our first fire in the garden to enjoy a good old South African braai (barbeque) with our friends. It was also accompanied with some very satisfying local wine from a nearby vineyard, Steenberg.






To see K&i Design Studio for yourself visit www.kandi.co.za
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