How do you honour someone who has had a monumental impact on not only Cape Town, South Africa and the rest of the continent, but on the entire world?
This was the question that the City of Cape Town’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, put to Design Indaba chief executive Ravi Naidoo.
The monumental person being honoured is, of course, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
A long-time resident of the city, Archbishop Tutu received the Freedom of the City in 1998, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
As a church leader, Archbishop Tutu has remained a beacon of forgiveness, peace and empathy, and has also been a uniting figure for South Africans.
After the initial announcement of the Arch for the Arch project at the Design Indaba conference earlier this year, we are finally ready to launch the Arch for the Arch monument, which was made possible by support from Liberty.
It will be located next to the St Georges Cathedral at the corner of Wale and Adderley Streets.
Mayor De Lille said: "As a leader in our faith community, Archbishop Tutu continues to speak truth to power before and after our liberation.
"I was fortunate to be one of the members of the Constitutional Assembly who wrote the final constitution. The Arch for the Arch representing the 14 chapters of our constitution must be a constant reminder to all of us about where we come from and to uphold the values contained therein."
The Arch for the Arch project will be unveiled on October 7, to coincide with Archbishop Tutu’s 86th birthday. The physical structure of the Arch for the Arch consists of 14 individual arched beams of wood, which together form a dome.
A multidisciplinary architectural endeavour, the 14 pillars will serve to symbolise the 14 chapters of the South African Constitution.
Our constitution is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world and similarly to how an arch relies on a keystone to avoid collapse, so too do South African freedoms rely on the constitution.
De Lille is the mayor of Cape Town and Maditla is editor at Design Indaba