The City Agency

The City Agency THE CITY The City was founded by Zahira Asmal in February 2010. Our work is amorphous, curious, and celebrates multiplicity. The City is a space for all.

Working out of Cape Town, South Africa, The City celebrates diversity and debate on a cross-continental scale. The City investigates the dynamic cultural, social and spatial activities shaping our contemporary urban consciousness. Through publications, curated experiences and strategic connections, The City disseminates information to targeted groups in the private, public and civic sectors. Harne

ssing a global network of visionary designers, thinkers and communicators, we develop innovative solutions to social, cultural and spatial challenges. We are motivated by the belief that imagination is the key to a shared future.

The City CURATED EXPERIENCES The City curates bespoke experiences for each of its projects, as well as for collaborators...
28/03/2025

The City CURATED EXPERIENCES

The City curates bespoke experiences for each of its projects, as well as for collaborators and clients. These experiences include academic studios, design workshops, seminars, and conferences, as well as expert tours for local government representatives, diplomats, and specialist media. The public is, of course, always welcome, particularly those interested in design, and the urban realm – in South Africa, and our partner cities around the world.

Over the years, The City has organised and contributed to bespoke studios for universities visiting from the United States, Brazil, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan. The experiences include workshops, seminars, conferences, and expert presentations on topics of our research.

Connect with us for commissions and collaborations: [email protected]


The City SHOPOur books are invitations to explore cities. They are beautifully designed to present engrossing stories, c...
27/03/2025

The City SHOP

Our books are invitations to explore cities. They are beautifully designed to present engrossing stories, captivating photography and commissioned artworks. They are gifts, easy-to-carry reference guides, and inspiring artefacts.

Shop The City's books (link in the comments)
Movement Johannesburg (digital)
Movement Cape Town (digital)
Reflections & Opportunities (Printed in English and Brazilian Portuguese)

Connect with The City: [email protected]


The City has a new website. Check it out!(link in the comments)ABOUT The CityCities are conversations. Between the envir...
27/03/2025

The City has a new website. Check it out!
(link in the comments)

ABOUT The City

Cities are conversations. Between the environment and people. Between the past and the present. Between form and function. Between creativity and corporation. Cities are a form of inquiry, and a way of coming together as we ask, seek and respond.

Founded by acclaimed urbanist Zahira Asmal, The City has been an engaged participant in these conversations since 2010. The agency began with a simple question: What makes a city?

Answers are sought in the acts of city-making, in social engagement, and in participation in the public life of cities. The City balances the practical and the poetic as it researches, advises, advocates, consults, connects and collaborates. Projects have included visionary transnational designs, start-ups, built works, exhibitions, scholarly publications, lectures and performances, social critiques, and curated experiences. Our work spans continents and connects thinkers and makers.


Catch The City Agency on CNN this week!Our very own, Zahira Asmal, will feature on CNN Inside Africa alongside 5 other C...
20/06/2023

Catch The City Agency on CNN this week!

Our very own, Zahira Asmal, will feature on CNN Inside Africa alongside 5 other Cape Town based entrepreneurs.

The segment will focus on Zahira's research in Cape Town, projects undertaken by The City now 13 years old, as well as the 3 year old Cultivate Collective and Cultivate Company, that Zahira founded at the start of lockdown in 2020.

The feature is filmed at the Zeitz MOCAA, Bo Kaap and at the Cultivate Marketplace.

—

The show will be aired on:
Saturday 24 June
17:30 Eastern Time | 23:30 South African Time
22:00 ET | 04:00 SA Time

Sunday 25 June
01:30 ET | 07:30 in SA
06:30 ET | 12:30 in SA
12:30 ET | 18:30 in SA

This Wednesday, The City director, Zahira Asmal will be giving a talk at the University of Oxford in the UK. The talk ti...
12/06/2023

This Wednesday, The City director, Zahira Asmal will be giving a talk at the University of Oxford in the UK.

The talk titled, "Welcome to Johannesburg", will take place in the Dahrendorf Room in St Antony's College at 4pm on Wednesday, 14 June 2023.

Abstract
Zahira Asmal narrates a journey through the obstacles, triumphs, and challenges of making place in a developing African City.

In a dynamic presentation, Zahira pulls together the threads of South Africa’s spatial history: colonialism, apartheid, forced removals, migrant labour, the new Afripolitan city. She critiques a development ideology that celebrates modernity, rather than successfully integrating the past into the present. She imagines a pan-African vision, where government, citizens, the diaspora all contribute equally to the making of the city.

Zahira investigates South Africa’s contested history. How has this influenced the making of memories and identities? How do culture and design professionals navigate the new democratic city? Who has agency to make place in the country’s biggest metropolis?

Zahira takes the audience behind the corrugated iron and razor wire that boards up old spaces in Johannesburg. She bravely invites us to witness her battles with a stubborn municipal bureaucracy. She offers her dreams and hopes for our analysis.

This is a unique, intimate and unmissable snapshot of the human aspect embedded within the design process. Zahira’s journey offers international insights, personal perspectives, and a good dose of optimism.

The City director, Zahira Asmal, is with The Architectural Review in Brighton today for their Future Projects awards. La...
08/06/2023

The City director, Zahira Asmal, is with The Architectural Review in Brighton today for their Future Projects awards. Launched in 2002, the AR Future Projects awards are a window into tomorrows cities.

Zahira served as a judge alongside Jorge Perez and Duncan Blackmore.

Visit the link in the comments to view the winners of the 2023 AR Future Projects awards.

Since launching in 2017 the See project has brought together individuals & institutions to exchange ideas, debate & deve...
08/12/2022

Since launching in 2017 the See project has brought together individuals & institutions to exchange ideas, debate & develop methodologies to bring about representational equity in the public life of cities shadowed by colonialism & aparthied.

The City is fortunate to have learned from individuals & institutions offering time, knowledge & collaboration. They work tirelessly to make this young democracy inclusive and representative. We give thanks to the teams at the District Six Museum, Institute for Creative Arts & Urban Design Institute of South Africa.

We extended the See project beyond our borders, to places that have a connection to Cape Town’s past & present. We have been guided by the teams at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Cape Town, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Research Center for Material Culture, Nationaal Archief, Rijks Museum, Black Archives & Black Heritage Tours. Special thanks go to Bonnie Horbach.

We are grateful for the financial support from the Creative Industries Fund & DutchCulture making global connections, activities and publications possible.

“The See project promised to generate rigorous debate, fresh discoveries and new ways to See and be seen. It has certainly delivered on that as well as having created impactful and long-lasting relationships,” - Zahira Asmal, director of The City.

Please join The City as we extend the work of See. The project actively seeks out stories, imagery & designs. Participation is invited from people living in Cape Town & from across the world.

Scroll through some highlights:

1. Launch of See, Sir David Adjaye in conversation with Zahira Asmal
2. Widening the Scope of History & Memory conversation with Wayne Modest
3. Monuments & Memorials Studio with Arna Mackic, pictured with Khalied Jacobs, District Six
4. Zahira Asmal takes the Dutch Ambassador, Han Peters, & CG, Sebastiaan Messerschmidt on a tour of sites of memory
5 & 6. Knowledge Sharing Workshop, District Six Homecoming Center
7. Transnational Workshop, Het Nieuwe Instituut
8. See Conference panel discussion led by Steven Robins
9. See Studio presentation, Uzair Ben Ibrahim
10. See Studio presentation, Kawthar Jeewa & Sara Frikech

Highlights from the See Conference.
07/12/2022

Highlights from the See Conference.

The Contested CityCape Town was selected as the location for the See project as it is a global port city, a hub for both...
07/12/2022

The Contested City

Cape Town was selected as the location for the See project as it is a global port city, a hub for both the voluntary and forced migration of people. While its citizens reflect multiple, diverse histories, Cape Town has largely been modelled as an assimilated version of Europe and is not equally inclusive of all its cultures.

The majority of Cape Town’s residents remain a cultural minority - underrepresented in the public life of the city - a place they call home. Challenged by the lack of representation in Cape Town, Zahira Asmal initiated the See project to draw urgent attention to the identities, memories and histories that inform the evolving social, spatial and cultural realities of Cape Town.

“Cape Town was founded on public policy grounded on exclusion, initially through colonialism and later by apartheid, and lacks representation as a democratic city. We need to acknowledge and explore our pasts truthfully and meaningfully if we are to make Cape Town the city we wish her to be, for all.”

Scroll through images of memory and contestations in Cape Town:
1. Castle (Fort) of Good Hope, Cape Town
2. Vergelegen Wine Estate, Somerset West
3. Riebeek’s Hedge, Kirstenbosch
4. Huguenot Memorial, Franschhoek
5. Khoi initiation ceremony, embracing indigenous ancestry - denouncing “coloured”, Strandfontein
6. Rhodes Memorial, Cape Town
7. Taal Monument, Paarl
8. Kramat for Sayed Abduraghman Motura, Robben Island
9. Dislocated statue of Cecil John Rhodes, University of Cape Town
10. Tana Baru, Bo Kaap

Image Credit: Zahira Asmal

Cultivating Futures​​Zahira Asmal, director of The City and founder of inclusive wine initiative Cultivate, opened the e...
03/12/2022

Cultivating Futures

​​Zahira Asmal, director of The City and founder of inclusive wine initiative Cultivate, opened the evening and welcomed guests by explaining how she established the Cultivate Collective and company, in 2020. Membership is drawn from across the South African industry: winemakers, producers, analysts, sommeliers and wine consultants in export, marketing, tourism and innovation.

This set the scene for a sensory food and wine experience, open to the public. It was created by Spencer Fondaumiere, president of the South African Sommeliers Association, and Jocelyn Myers-Adams, a well-travelled, highly experienced chef who enjoys pushing culinary boundaries.

This delectable and intriguing experience offered a seemingly never-ending selection of shared dishes inspired by the themes of the See Studio and Festival: “Taming the wild”, “Invisible hybridity”; “How to belong here”; and “Rituals of remembering”. Jocelyn conjured up fresh interpretations of South African favourites, interpreting local ingredients, such as updating biltong (dried spiced meat) into a tasty paté, and combining Japanese and South African influences in chicken, meat and vegetable kebabs cooked outside on a grill.

Spencer’s wine selection, sourced from the Cultivate and friends stable, complemented the cuisine. He selected from the Aslina, Her, Klein Goederust and Spier Organic ranges.

📸: The City Agency

Stepping Into History Following teamwork and presentation preparations during the day, the See Studio participants were ...
03/12/2022

Stepping Into History

Following teamwork and presentation preparations during the day, the See Studio participants were welcomed at the Athletic Club & Social by owner Athos Euripidou. Athos had moved from Durban to Cape Town with a plan to create a space that promotes inclusivity. Drawing inspiration from its roots as a speakeasy-style bar for athletes of all races during the apartheid era, Athos took to the city’s archives in search of old pictures of African sports teams. Coming up short, he sent a sports journalist into the townships, knocking from door to door, to unearth never-before-published photographs of African athletes, newspaper clippings, and old trophies dating as far back as 1932, to create a homage to the untold stories of unsung athletic heroes.

Athos’s gripping stories culminated in an exclusive jazz performance by Lady Felicity and the trumpets in a room dedicated to trumpeter, composer and singer Hugh Masekela, who wrote well-known anti-apartheid compositions such as Soweto blues and Bring him back home.

What a treat for the See Studio participants!

📸: Zahira Asmal

See Studio Performances & Presentations Day 2The See Festival drew to a successful close with the last day's presentatio...
02/12/2022

See Studio Performances & Presentations Day 2

The See Festival drew to a successful close with the last day's presentations taking place through the beautiful city of Cape Town.

The day commenced and concluded with Nancy Jouwe and Janine Overmeyer respectively, working on the theme, “Rituals of Remembering: Intergenerational healing in forgotten histories”.

Nancy invited the public to join her in reading the city as an archive on a walking tour connecting various sites in the city including the Tana Baru and the Kramats of Tuan Guru and Tuan Said Aloewie, then to the Auwal Masjid, St George’s Cathedral, the Slave Lodge and Company’s Garden. Guided by Nancy, studio participants and the public entered the history and herstory of slavery in Cape Town, and its afterlife.

At the Company’s Garden the group met Kawthar Jeewa and Sara Frikech who worked on the theme “Taming the Wild: (DE) Colonial Imprints in Cape Town’s Natural World”. The group gathered around a picnic, and interacted with Sara and Kawthar’s hand-crafted canvas, while listening to their presentations and poetry recitals. The group engaged in ecology and colonialism while adding their own designs and expressions to the canvas.

Mitchell Esajas connected his theme, “Architectures of Resistance: Encountering justice through memory” at the Castle (Fort) of Good Hope. His presentation included a pop up exhibition from the Black Archives in the Netherlands where he is co-founder. Mitchell engaged all attendees in a lively debate on colonialism, reparations and redress.

The week's events concluded at the Camissa Museum with Janine Overmeyer. Her moving performance of original poetry pieces and songs took the group on a journey of identity, remembering and ultimately working together towards healing - an appropriate way to close off the See Festival 2022.

📸: The City Agency

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27 Main Road
Cape Town
8005

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Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 09:00 - 17:00

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