A collaborative urban intervention by Blok, Studio Kalki and TwoFiveFive creates a new link between the vibrant city centre and the lush Company’s Garden.
Blok, Studio Kalki and TwoFiveFive have unveiled Between Two Suns, a permanent arched thoroughfare, public artwork and urban intervention at TENONV in Cape Town’s city centre.
The collaborative project brings together residential property development, architecture and public art to open up a new pedestrian connection between upper Long Street, the Company’s Garden and the surrounding network of walkable streets and public spaces in the CBD.
Conceived as both a practical route and an immersive public artwork, Between Two Suns reflects a shared ambition to make the city centre more connected and engaging for the people who live in it, visit it and move through it every day.
“We have always believed that a residential development should contribute something to the city around it,” says Blok CEO, Jacques van Embden. “The experience and value of a building shouldn’t stop at its front door or only be available to the people who live there. Between Two Suns is a meaningful urban intervention that creates a route residents, visitors and people simply moving through the city can all use. The thoroughfare also features a public seating area, a place to pause, and enjoy the art”.
At the heart of the thoroughfare is a commissioned, bespoke, hand-crafted ceramic tile installation by Durban-based Studio Kalki, led by Nikhil Tricam and Nindya Bucktowar – Between Two Suns. The work draws on some of the defining elements of Cape Town, including its fynbos, architecture, light and the meeting of two oceans, with people forming the connecting thread.
The artwork takes its spatial cue from the Company’s Garden itself. The composition is framed by the rising and setting sun, while the ceramic language and colour palette reference the mountains, ocean, natural landscape and environment of the city. “The idea of the two suns became particularly important because it speaks to movement, time and the experience of passing through a space rather than simply looking at an artwork,” says Troy Squires, Head of Marketing at Blok.
As people move through the arch throughout the day, the changing light reflects across the hand-glazed surfaces, creating a different experience of the artwork from sunrise to sunset.
Nikhil Tricam of Studio Kalki says the intention was to create a piece that could hold multiple Cape Town stories at once.
“What makes this project meaningful is that it is shaped by the fabric of the city itself. It becomes an expression of Cape Town at a particular moment in time, through the motifs, materials and ceramic language used to create it. The work is literally rooted in South Africa, from the materials it is made from to the stories it reflects. We often underestimate the value of public art interventions, but at this scale, and when they are embedded so fundamentally into how people move through and experience a place, they can genuinely add to the character of a city,” says Nikhil.
Together with architects TwoFiveFive, Blok saw an opportunity to rethink a traditionally closed building edge and make it open and accessible.
André Krige, Architect at TwoFiveFive, says: “The architectural move is quite simple: where there was previously a boundary, there is now a passage. But that shift changes the relationship between the building, the street and the wider city. The thoroughfare allows TENONV to participate more actively in the public realm and creates a stronger pedestrian connection through this part of Cape Town.”
Adds van Embden: “The best outcome for us is that the thoroughfare becomes part of people’s everyday movement through the city. Someone may be walking home, heading to the Company’s Garden, moving between Long Street and another part of the CBD, or simply discovering a new route. That’s the value of an urban intervention like this: the building becomes more connected to the life of the city around it.”
Between Two Suns is now open to the public at TENONV, 10 Vredenburg Lane, Cape Town.
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