Anselm Tabansi left a cushy job as an associate lawyer at a prestigious Nigerian firm to follow another path. He was heeding a call and is now a staple in Nigeria’s design and hospitality industry.
“I am a lawyer by profession, so this is not a familiar academic terrain for me. I worked for a law firm specializing in industrial and intellectual property and did that for about four years. I woke up one morning and decided it was not the path for me,” says Tabansi.
An Anselm Tabansi designed space leave a lasting impression on design aficionados. His is a story of passion and intent.
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His creativity reaches back to his academic years in England where an interest for architecture blossomed. While it wasn’t pursued, Tabansi subsequently found himself trading in interior accessories, supplying interior designers and shops at the start of his design career. Wrought iron was the aesthetic trend in England at the time. Tabansi, believing this trend would thrive in Nigeria, made a decision to test the market at home. Following some research, he took the plunge, opening a small-scale production workshop in Lagos. He started with one welder and soon added a painter.
It was a bumpy start, with the new company, Svengali Designs, struggling to gain any prominence. He needed to create some buzz and began producing samples for friends and furniture shops to gauge their interest. Tabansi’s new venture soon proved to be a great decision. Within a year, there was a surge in demand for wrought iron furniture in Nigeria, catapulting Tabansi’s business.
“I started producing wrought iron furniture, wrought iron for balconies, railings, stairs, and gates. It was in high demand at that time but a couple of years later, the trend began to shift away from wrought iron. It had become a fad. I knew we would start to lose a significant amount of clients. The trend was shifting to wood-based furniture. Aluminum and stainless steel for railings, followed closely. We made the necessary shift and we have never looked back,” says Tabansi.
This shift would transform Tabansi’s company from one that produced a single product to a multi-faceted one.
Nigeria’s creative industry has enjoyed rapid growth as homegrown designers were given a more enabling environment. A few challenges still exist however, power and policy being at the forefront.
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“The need to generate our own power is mandatory. This makes production very expensive as we were constantly burning diesel. The raw materials we use for our production are also heavily taxed on duty. This poses a huge challenge and we hope the incoming government addresses this.”
From conference tables to living room furniture, Svengali Designs has carved out a large slice in the market with production for hospitality projects taking off in 1996 and a growing customer base that cuts across key sectors.
Interior design is a key service the company offers. With a mix of locally produced and imported merchandise, clients come from far and wide. The factory has 160 employees.
A joint venture with Turkish company, Poliform, led to Svengali-Poliform, a production arm for stainless steel and aluminum railings. This has a 43-man workforce.
Looking to grow even further, Tabansi ventured into the hospitality business. Nigeria’s hospitality industry is saturated with international brands. Identifying a gap in the homegrown hospitality management industry saw the birth of Fahrenheit Hospitality.
“I am focusing on the boutique segment of the hospitality industry. Through my various past operations, I have assumed full control of over every aspect of delivering on this kind of project. Design, construction, outfitting, supplies and management is all handled within the group. We have not just reduced our costs but also ensured the quality of our design is adhered to.”
“Every final piece is a reflection of my style and taste.”
As he also plays the role of Creative Director, Tabansi supervises all steps of the production process. He says that the quality assurance at Svengali Designs gives his company an edge.
“Over the years, people have come to associate us with quality. It is my joy to hear that pieces that were purchased from us over 15 years ago are still in top form.”
Under the Fahrenheit Hospitality brand, there are plans to roll out a series of boutique hotels.
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As opposed to starting the furniture business years ago, where organic growth was needed, the hospitality brand is a capital intensive project.
“We are currently trying to attract investment with vested interest in our projects,” says Tabansi.
Despite the infrastructural bottlenecks, Tabansi‘s decision to remain a Nigeria-based producer is a conscious one.
Likening his personal style to a simple sophistication, Tabansi urges budding designers to follow their passion.
“I discovered my passion in design. Defining a space, deconstructing it and redefining it. From this, I get so much joy and constantly strive to outdo myself.”
Tabansi tries to cater for a wide spectrum of clients. He, however, says that quality comes with cost.
“Our pieces are affordable and we keep our products within the reach of many.”
Tabansi has exciting plans for the future of Africa’s design and hospitality scene. He aims to be on the frontlines, pushing the envelope.

The Iron Will That Propelled An Entrepreneur To The Top Table

It’s a popular hubris that we live in an age of unprecedented technological innovation – that our ancestors lived in a time where there were fewer technological advances, blinded as they were by their primitive superstitions and lack of access to the resources we have today.
While we certainly live in an era of amazing technology, it’s not necessarily true that our level of innovation is unprecedented. The fact of the matter is that our ancestors were just as smart as we are (in fact, given the human brain size has been shrinking for centuries, they might have been smarter.) And as archaeologists uncover more about the past, they’ve also learned that many technologies we take for granted today were first developed centuries or even millennia ago, only to be lost.
Take, for example, plastic surgery. It’s something we think of as a relatively new technology, right? But in fact, plastic surgery was practiced in India centuries before the birth of Christ. It continued to be practiced for thousands of years, but wasn’t “discovered” in Europe until the 18th century, when British doctors learned about it from India.
Recently, there have been two recent engineering discoveries from Ancient Rome that have the potential to shake up some major areas of industry – discoveries that show we still have a lot to learn from our ancestors.
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The first finding is rather astonishing. As noted earlier this month by Zeeya Merali, a 1,600 year old chalice known as the Lycurgus Cup have proved to be more than just a stunning work of art. It’s also an example of one of the earliest forms of nanotechnology.
The cup, as Merali notes, was actually a mystery for centuries. That’s because it appears green when lit from one angle, but red when lit from a different angle. It wasn’t until the 1990s, after decades of study in the 20th century, that it was determined how it was created. As it turns out, the glass itself was infused with particles of silver and gold that were only about 50 nanometers in diameter. The particular ratio of the mixture was definitely known, as other similar cups have been discovered.
In a paper from 2007, scientists who have studied the cup noted that “[e]ven using modern powerdriven tools, this type of vessel takes a great deal of time to complete.” But more than that, this technology might turn out to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
That’s because researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, using the same techniques the Romans used, earlier this yeardeveloped a device that enables them detect DNA and proteins without having to chemically modify them first. That lowers the overall costs and helps resist errors that occur in the process. The team estimates that their device is about “100 times better sensitivity” than any other similar product.
In their paper, published in Advanced Optical Materials, the research teams says that “We envisage extensive use of the device for DNA microarrays, therapeutic antibody screening for drug discovery and pathogen detection in resource poor setting and a low cost, higher sensitive alternative to existing SPR/LSPR instruments.”
But the Ancient Romans aren’t content to only revolutionize medicine. Soon, you may be living or working on a building or road that’s built with the same materials that the Romans built their own with – materials that, when created, also produce fewer carbon emissions.
That’s thanks to the work of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley, which has studied the ways that Roman concrete has managed to endure for over 2,000 years in the same conditions that cause modern concrete to degrade after about 50 years.
The key to the durability of Roman concrete was its mixture of lime and volcanic ash, which produces a concrete that includes aluminum, something most modern cements lack. Modern cements also rely on limestone, but the Roman recipe calls for much less of it. That means that Roman concrete can be created at temperatures nearly a thousand degrees lower than modern cements. As a result, using Roman cement means not only a more durable material, but also one that can be produced with less fuel in less time – making it both more efficient and more environmentally sustainable.
That’s a good thing, considering that “manufacturing Portland cement accounts for seven percent of the carbon dioxide that industry puts into the air,” as lead researcher Paulo Monteiro noted in a statement. The research team’s chemical analysis of Roman concrete was recently published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, and more of their research will be published later this year.
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These new applications of Ancient Roman technology have, I think, something powerful to teach us in the present day. Many of the problems that face civilization are as old as civilization itself. And as we look for innovative ways to deal with those problems, it’s a mistake to only look for guidance in new ideas. It may be that if we look backwards at what our ancestors did, we maWy find that they’ve already solved our problems for us. We just have to be humble enough to accept that.

These two ancient Roman techs could disrupt modern industry

It is believed that many centuries ago, revered Christian heroes were granted a measure of favor or grace by God himself. This gift of grace was known as khárisma. The Mercedes-Benz SL has, historically, also been bestowed with favor and now 60 years since the first one was crafted, I have been blessed by Mercedes with the all-new SL500.
The SL is the eldest brother in the range of Mercedes roadsters. It fits in between the big daddy SLS and the younger, smaller SLK range. From some angles, the new SL may appear somewhat awkward compared to its predecessor, and this is largely because of the sheer size of it. It’s bigger in length and width than the previous SL, thanks to the increased interior space to fit golf clubs or luggage.
The new Mercedes-Benz SL500 has a body shell made almost entirely from aluminum, with the exception of the trademark hardtop folding Vario roof, which is made from magnesium. The result is a car that weighs 140kg less than its older counterpart. So Mercedes have added more girth but reduced the weight.
They’ve used the same equation with the engine: The old SL500 used a 5.5l V8 and yet this new car is powered by a 4.7l V8 biturbo unit capable of producing an enormous 700Nm of torque and 320kW of power. This power doesn’t come at the price of efficiency, however, as the SL500 is claimed to do 9.2l/100km on the combined cycle. Hugely impressive, though I can’t claim to have come close to this figure.
The acoustic appointments, courtesy of Bang &amp; Olufsen, are definitely worth mentioning. The surround sound, 12-speaker system transforms the car into a concert hall worthy of a Hans Zimmer orchestra. It’s an astounding option, worth every penny of the system’s R57,350 ($6,350) asking price.
The cutting-edge technology continues with all we’ve come to expect from Mercedes-Benz: fatigue detection systems; intelligent cruise control; active body control; adaptive lights and blind spot assistance systems. These are all available on most other Mercedes, but a first in this SL is an innovative way to clean your windscreen. They call it ‘Magic Vision Control’ and it supplies windscreen washer fluid through the windscreen wipers instead of through the normal spray system. The idea is to distract the driver as little as possible when cleaning the windscreen as well as to prevent the not-very-luxurious experience of water spraying onto the occupants when the roof is down.
Of course, the major talking point of this luxury roadster is the Vario roof that retracts in about 14 seconds.Even the roof down, the cabin remains comfortably quiet—even more so with the electric draught-stop engaged. Driving with the top down is the best way to truly understand the SL500’s character. It is here that you get to understand the flexibility of the engine, drivetrain and gearbox in comfort or sport mode, none of which compromise on ride quality.
This car’s ability to effortlessly cruise in supreme comfort is astounding, as is its agility when you command that power to the road. I loved the mesmerizing midrange grunt of that biturbo as I put the SL through its paces along the many meandering corners leading to Magaliesberg in the North West Province of South Africa. I also loved the touring nature of the car; cruising with effortless comfort and poise, eating up the kilometers.
It’s an astonishing car to drive. While this incredible engine and chassis do their work, you are nestled in place by the active seats that grip you through the corners. The massage functions keep your blood flow balanced and relaxed while the Airscarf whispers warm air into the nape of your neck. Additional symphonic entertainment is provided courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Signature Sound CD that allows you to truly experience the power of music. The experience gave me goose bumps.
The entry-level Mercedes-Benz SL500 retails in South Africa for R1,681,000 ($186,200)—a substantial price tag no matter what you’re in the market for. Your other considerations may be the likes of the Jaguar XKR or the likes of the Maserati GranTurismo Coupe but both these models are older than the SL and don’t offer as much in the way of technology and luxury refinement.
The Mercedes-Benz SL500 is not the purist sports car that its SL nomenclature might suggest. It is certainly light and sporty, but its success is, and will continue to be, the fact that it’s a car you can live with every day. It’s an expensive car that makes complete sense.

Tag: Aluminum

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The Iron Will That Propelled An Entrepreneur To The Top Table

These two ancient Roman techs could disrupt modern industry

The Charisma Of The SL500