From the humble calabash to cutting-edge code, Africa’s design narrative has always danced between past and future. As we stand at the edge of a new urban awakening, the calabash—our timeless agwata—becomes more than a vessel. It becomes a metaphor for how we build, connect, and live.

Design Week Africa 2025, set in Tilisi—Kenya’s smart city in the making—isn’t just a celebration of design. It’s a live canvas, a real-time laboratory, and a cultural statement. This year’s theme, “Innovative Design for Quality Living,” finds its soul in the Agwata Experience—an immersive, calabash-inspired journey into design that is communal, functional, and deeply African. The Agwata, after all, has carried water, wisdom, and welcome across generations—symbolizing unity, resourcefulness, and continuity.

At Tilisi, we’re building not just for today, but for generations to come. And like the agwata, our design must be multipurpose, sustainable, and rooted in identity. Cities are no longer collections of concrete—they are living expressions of who we are.

This is where heritage meets modernity. Where clay forms inspire building façades, and data-driven design maps walkable neighborhoods. It’s where African design speaks not just to aesthetics, but to resilience, relevance, and responsibility. And most importantly, it’s where a shared dream becomes a tangible space—one street, one home, one smart solution at a time.

Design Week Africa 2025 is not just an event. It is a movement of cities rising and communities thriving—calabash-by-calabash, byte by byte, and brick by brick.