For years, developer Brian Green’s vision for sensitive urban regeneration has kept 44 Stanley a small but consistent space for quality dining, curated shopping and artisanal expression – a quiet home for local design that has no place in the Sandton Cities and Malls of Africa of Johannesburg.

In September, the centre reconfigured its spaces and introduced new stores, bringing its number of shops to 30, including a boutique hotel and a selection of fashion, dining, furniture, beauty, homeware and book stores. Here’s what’s new.

  Lift for Orange Babies

Lift for Orange Babies is a multidisciplinary design pop-up store that will operate until mid-November this year.

A creative partnership between A Better World Network, Metaphor Design, Breinstorm Brand Architects, A Rare Library, Adrienne Feldner and RoomService C, the pop-up has been set up to raise funds for Orange Babies, the South African branch of a Dutch nongovernmental organisation whose aim is to save the lives of babies and pregnant women with HIV.

“We were able to create this beautiful store full of interesting objects and arts because of the talented people who contributed to the initiative,’’ says director of A Better World, Samantha Manclarke.

The store houses fine art, prints, photographs, clothing, furniture and homeware by South African artists and designers including Sam Nhlengethwa, Pichulik, Kirsten Goss, Joe Paine, Lunar, Naked Ape, Row G, Black Coffee and The Atelier.

  Black Coffee

With a label that has been stretching the limitations of what contemporary African design looks like for the past 20 years, Jacques van der Watt is still one of the most respected fashion designers on the continent.

The new Black Coffee store at 44 Stanley is the second in Johannesburg and, on its first day of trade last month, hung pieces from Black Coffee’s new mosaic collection for Spring 2016/2017 inspired by the unlikely pairing of Gustav Klimt mosaic panels with the work of Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj.

  Kat van Duinen

Manclarke says 44 Stanley has always tried to attract diverse creatives into its mix of tenants.