Carpets: Judges' Chambers

“Chambers is where a judge spends the better part of his or her day… When you walk through the door of one of the Chambers at the Constitutional Court you can almost read the personality of the judge to whom the space belongs.” – Yvonne Mokgoro

At the Constitutional Court, each Judge’s Chambers shares a common architectural layout, yet is distinguished through individual custom-made carpets and personalised interiors. Judges arrange their furniture and select objects, artworks, and memorabilia according to their own sensibilities, shaping spaces that reflect both professional function and personal identity.

As part of the building’s construction, the Architectural Artworks Committee commissioned artists through a site-specific, limited competition to develop artwork-inspired carpets. These works, produced through collaborative processes of design and making, form a central element in articulating the individuality of each Chambers. Artists such as Romeo Zamane Makhanya, Sfiso ka-Mkame, and Contact Art (Diana Page, Jenny Parsons, Mary Visser) contributed to these commissions, introducing sculptural qualities of colour, texture, and form that reinforce the dialogue between institutional uniformity and personal expression within the Court.

The carpets were realised through a collaboration with Sculptured Rugs, whose tufters translated the designs into hand-crafted textile works.

Tufters / Sculptured Rugs: Zanendyebo de Villiers Bisani, Mary-Anne Gailey, Roger Gailey, Kolekile Maninjwa, Sandile Mbiko, Buyile Monco, Dambile Mpupu, Josiah Nani, Mlangabezi Potwana