The sister duo behind Ananta Design Studio, Viveka and Rucita Vassen, is as stylish as the innovative, handcrafted interior pieces that emerge from their multidisciplinary Cape Town atelier. Grounded in collaboration and cultural storytelling, their practice brings together design, craft and community with clarity and care.
Designing Identity
Inspired by their Indian–South African identity, the co-founders describe Ananta — a Sanskrit word meaning infinite — as playful, bold and colourful. Their culture is an enduring source of inspiration, shaping both aesthetic and intention, with each piece bearing a Sanskrit name tied to ideas of familial love, nature and fulfilment. This sense of continuity and meaning underpins the studio’s wider philosophy.
Sisters in Practice
The adage about never working with family is easily dispelled in their case. “We have a very unique relationship, and it feels completely natural,” says Viveka. Shaped by their closeness, as well as by an Indian cultural context in which family-run businesses are commonplace, their shared history creates ease and intuition in the studio.
“When you trust the other one’s strengths, it becomes about the bigger picture, not about what we as individuals think or want to do,” Rucita affirms. “It’s about what we do together.”
Those strengths are shaped by Viveka’s background in fashion and Rucita’s in graphic design, alongside a mutual regard for visual culture born of a love for art classes and magazine editorials as children.
Breaking Disciplinary Boundaries
While the sisters initially envisioned their “inevitable” creative business within the fashion sphere, research and experimentation soon revealed the limitations of working within a single discipline. “We wanted to completely break free and be able to do what we wanted,” asserts Viveka. This desire led to a multidisciplinary approach, allowing the studio to move fluidly across furniture, lighting and décor.
Since its electric home-ground launch at the 2022 Cape Town edition of Decorex, Ananta has continued to excite both local and international design audiences.
Design with Intention
Employing principles of Vastu Shastra, the ancient Indian science of architecture and spatial harmony, the studio creates thoughtfully designed pieces that radiate balance and positivity. Their connection to culture extends to both the form and values of the pieces.
Alongside celebrating and preserving local craft traditions, Ananta aims to economically empower its collaborators. Shaped by an upbringing that included volunteer work alongside their mother, the sisters’ strong sense of social responsibility is reflected in their relationships with these communities, which prioritise respect, transparency, and long-term engagement.
Craft as Collaboration
Ananta’s creations are brought to life through beadwork by women-focused Khayelitsha NPO MonkeyBiz, wire art by Rainbow Artz, and environmentally minded crochet work by Re.Bag.Re.Use. Through the many hands involved, each piece emerges from a dynamic interplay between deep craft expertise and the studio’s distinctive design language.
Forging these relationships during lockdown in 2020 required persistence and trust. The sisters note that their genuine appreciation for design and beauty was clearly felt by the artisans they now consider family rather than business partners. “We respected their craft, and that set the tone,” says Rucita.
Many works take forms artisans have not previously produced, requiring close collaboration and shared problem-solving to develop something entirely new. “It’s their expertise, it’s their time,” Rucita explains, underscoring the studio’s made-to-order model, which ensures minimal waste while allowing crafters to determine the value of their labour.
“Craft is so important — it’s part of [South African and Indian] people, of the essence of a place,” says Rucita.
Looking Forward
For Viveka, this commitment to craft is inseparable from innovation. “People need newness,” she adds, “and it’s about creating something that will actually go into the future.” Central to this vision is inspiring younger generations to reconnect with their cultural histories through contemporary reinterpretations of heritage techniques.
From the kaleidoscopic beaded Maata Pita table lamps to the exuberant Klopse Blomme chair inspired by Cape Town’s Kaapse Klopse parade, and the eye-dazzling lilac Samani dresser embellished by MonkeyBiz beaders Thandi Mankosi and Noluvo Nojekwa, Ananta’s pieces are compelling not only in outcome and reference, but also in process.
Looking ahead, Viveka notes plans to work on a larger scale, with more ambitious pieces and art commissions, although this expansion will not roll out imminently.
Running a values-driven studio, she acknowledges, has its challenges. “You’re choosing between speed and integrity, and also margin and meaning,” she says, pointing to longer production timelines and the constant negotiation of time and cash flow.
Added to this is the “quiet pressure of consistency”, particularly in handmade production, where care, precision and ethical commitment must be upheld at every stage.
For Ananta, informed by the sisters’ heritage and reflective of South Africa’s social fabric, craft becomes both conversation and conservation through making. Their human-centred approach values connection as much as creation, producing work that is culturally nuanced, and endlessly imaginative, and forward-looking.
