Design meets distinction at the Cape Grace Hotel with YARDCOM in partnership Scape and SAOTA

June 2025, Cape Town, South Africa — What does it mean to live outside, beautifully? On Friday 13th June 2025, YARDCOM, Scape, and SAOTA met to host the best of the architecture and design industry at the Cape Grace Hotel, celebrated for its refined elegance and Monaco-esque views of boats on the bay — the scene was set for an afternoon dedicated to UNFOLD, an invitation to celebrate how we design and live outside beautifully.

The event hosted 75 of Cape Town’s most dynamic architects, designers, and landscape professionals from firms such as dhk, Peerutin Karol, Clinton Savage, GSQUARED, and more. The afternoon indulged conversation on how we design, live, and luxuriate in outdoor spaces and evoked an enthusiastic exchange with industry dynamos who engaged with the leading luxury, global brand YARDCOM.

The event brought the brand’s story to life and reflected a key theme of outdoor design — the symphony between man-made structure and the natural world. During a speech introducing the invited guests to YARDCOM, managing director Damon Ma mirrored this sentiment saying, ‘Luxury homes today are not just about what’s inside. They are about what happens beyond the walls. YARDCOM is here to truly ignite those feelings with products that reflect and belong in their environment.’ With a focus on using sustainable materials, the brand balances architectural clarity and comfort with environmental consciousness.

The design dialogues were centred around the theme of UNFOLD, with each speaker given words or phrases to prompt their presentation. The prompts ranged from ‘pause’ to ‘transition’, and even ‘creation’, offering a window into how these five design icons interpret the outdoor realm. ‘For me, working with nature is about observation,’ Franchesca Watson said. ‘Nature isn’t static. It's about listening to nature and listening to your intuition, listening to how design makes you feel.’
In encouraging the guests to engage with each of the five senses, the experience was a reminder that good design isn’t just seen — it’s experienced.