Cape Town’s city centre has gained a new passageway, but Between Two Suns is about more than simply getting from one street to another.
Created by property developer Blok, architecture practice TwoFiveFive and Durban-based Studio Kalki, the permanent urban intervention at TEN ON V transforms what was once a closed building edge into a public pedestrian connection linking upper Long Street with the Company’s Garden and surrounding CBD streets.
The result is part shortcut, part public artwork and part invitation to experience the city differently.
When A Building Gives Back To The City
Urban developments can sometimes feel disconnected from the communities and streets around them. Between Two Suns takes the opposite approach.
The intervention opens the development to the wider public, creating a route that can be used by residents, workers, visitors and anyone simply moving through the city.
There is also a public seating area, encouraging people not just to pass through but to stop, take a breath and spend a moment with the artwork.
For a city increasingly thinking about walkability, public space and how people experience the CBD, that small shift can have a bigger impact.
Cape Town Told Through Ceramic
At the centre of the passage is a bespoke, hand-crafted ceramic installation created by Studio Kalki, led by Nikhil Tricam and Nindya Bucktowar.
The artwork draws from the visual language of Cape Town — its fynbos, mountains, architecture, oceans and distinctive light — while placing people at the centre of the story.
Its title, Between Two Suns, reflects the experience of moving through the space as the day changes.
As sunlight travels across the arch, it interacts with the hand-glazed ceramic surfaces, meaning the installation is never experienced exactly the same way twice.
It is less about standing in front of art and more about encountering it while living your everyday life.
Public Art That People Actually Use
That distinction is important.
Rather than positioning public art as something separate from the city, Between Two Suns makes art part of the daily commute, weekend walk, lunch break or spontaneous exploration.
Its architectural concept is deliberately straightforward: replace a boundary with a passage.
But that simple intervention changes how the building relates to the street and how people move through this part of Cape Town.
For young urban South Africans, this is the kind of city-making worth paying attention to. Good urban design isn’t only about impressive buildings. It is also about creating places that feel accessible, useful and connected to the culture of their surroundings.
Between Two Suns ultimately asks a simple question: what if the spaces between buildings could become part of the city’s story too?
The public thoroughfare is now open at TEN ON V, 10 Vredenburg Lane, Cape Town, offering locals and visitors a new way to move through — and experience — the CBD.
