I took this picture of downtown Johannesburg about 13 years ago. I was fresh from Cape Town, barely settled, and still finding my feet when I had the opportunity to hitch a ride in a helicopter over the city at the break of dawn. How different a place looks from above…Only a few years before that, I was still living in Cape Town and had become terrified of setting foot in Joburg. One weekend I had to come here to look after my sister's house. The minute I arrived went for a food shop and then locked myself in for the entire weekend only to let myself out when she returned. 

 

It's been quite a few years since the tragic house-sitting weekend and a few years since the helicopter ride, but by now I'm obsessed with Johannesburg. It is the city I love and the place I call home. 

 

This month I'm thinking about public spaces, workspaces and urban environments we share with our neighbours and the people we pass daily as we move through the city.  

On Substack I've written about beauty and its role in society, and how the environment we inhabit shapes us. 

 

On PCBS's, blog you can read about how the office space we created for them changed the way they work, and how they interact with each other and their clients.