WORDS Steve Smith PHOTOS Paris Brummer
With its beautifully restored heritage building and strikingly modern furniture and lighting on offer, the Inova Concept Store is well worth a visit.
With a storied provenance and a trending location, Inova Concept Store is the most recent addition to the Cape Town design scene. A glance through its large street-facing windows on the Mother’s City’s bustling Harrington Street reveals a space stocked with some of the world’s iconic furniture, lighting and accessories brands – we’re talking HAY, Moooi, Arflex, Audo Copenhagen, Arper, Magis, Pedrali, Miniforms and, coming soon, Memphis Milano. You’ll find some local products too – planters from local ceramics meisters Vorster & Braye, and bespoke mirrors by +27.
It’s a smart choice of location – there’s a lot going in Harrington Street these days, with new retail spaces opening up all the way up the road – and it was a smart choice to employ architect Robert Silke to refurb the frontage and interior of what was the kind of nondescript old heritage building that never registered on the eye. It’s thanks to Robert’s heritage sensibilities that the character of the building remains firm while being granted new life as a functioning space in 2023.
Inova Concept Store is the brainchild of Brent Weldon – and yes, that surname and orange semi-circle logo painted on the side of the building will likely jog the memory of some of VISI’s older furniture aficionados. You may recall a store called Innovation back in the 1980s/’90s that was initially in Loop Street, and then at The Foundry in Green Point. Started by Brent’s dad, Innovation was a pioneer in importing high-end, mostly Italian collectable furniture for a discerning clientele. In subsequent years, Brent focused more on supplying large commercial spaces with luxury furniture and