This four-day design festival, celebrating contemporary furniture, lighting and homeware, opened on 18 February 2026. This marked the third year that Hope participated at the main hub in town, located in the old Africa Bank Building on St George’s Mall. It was an ideal opportunity to experience the building before its conversion into a hotel. (Yup, another one!) The interior, showing clear signs of age, provided a striking contrast to the contemporary designs on display.
This year saw the long-awaited addition to the 3 range: the Iris chair. A design that has been brewing in Adrian’s mind for many years. A 1:1 drawing clipped to his drawing board finally found its way onto the factory floor. The weeks leading up to the festival involved numerous iterations from the team at the factory, ultimately resulting in a prototype that attracted considerable interest. Exceptionally comfortable, we were pleased to see the chair being tested by a wide variety of body types throughout the event. The intended wooden steam-bent back for the outdoor version remains a work in progress, however the indoor version, featuring a leather back, piqued significant interest.
2026 also marked a shift for hope, as the festival footprint expanded to include Observatory, Woodstock, Salt River, and Paarden Eiland. This placed hope garden furniture showroom firmly on the festival map — not only as a destination, but also as a venue hosting an event. Gareth Pearson from Cape Town Furniture Week joined Adrian Hope in conversation, exploring his journey and design process, which refreshingly does not rely on CAD, SolidWorks, or other digital design tools. It was inspiring to see many younger designers engage with Adrian’s candid account and draw meaningful inspiration from his experience.
The event also provided an opportunity to visit the hope showroom garden and delve into the history and renovation of this iconic building. Guests were treated to coffee and madeleines from Lion Bread, with the charming barista Tariq, serving excellent coffee through the morning. It was hard work, but exceptionally rewarding and we just might do something like this again!
Cape Town Furniture Week remains a highlight for the industry. It is run by an extraordinary team that works incredibly hard, curating the event, bringing new sponsors on board, facilitating multiple events and still looking remarkably calm and collected!
