Ilana Steenkamp is an architect and urban designer leading the urban design unit at Yes& Studio, a Cape Town-based practice working at the intersection of landscape architecture, urbanism, and co-creation strategies. With a background spanning architectural practice, public realm strategy, and participatory urban design, she brings a strong focus on design processes and context-sensitive design to her work. Ilana has contributed to projects across South Africa and internationally, including the District Six Public Realm Strategy. Her academic background bridges architecture and urbanism. She holds a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design (New York) as a Fulbright Scholar, and a Master of City Planning and Urban Design from the University of Cape Town.

Yes& Studio is a firm of young architects, urban designers, landscape architects who aim to better understand the dynamic relationships between people and place. The studio approaches design as a process of centering people, engaging with their shared narratives and understanding their experiences of the spaces they use. The studio’s designs are largely based in urban areas and regardless of context, aim to create positive places that directly address some of the complex issues facing South African environs. Their work spans urban frameworks, streetscape upgrades, landscape interventions, and informal market spaces, often developed through iterative engagement with community stakeholders, government structures and interdisciplinary professional teams.

Over the last few years, Yes& Studio has been involved in designing trader and market environments that respond to local economic patterns and social dynamics. These projects support informal economies through spatial strategies that prioritise dignity, and collective use, and narratives of the space, in settings where design must navigate complex social and infrastructural realities.