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V&A Waterfront · Mixed-use precinct · Cape Town

A platform built to run a smart neighbourhood.

An interconnected platform for the V&A Waterfront - engineered to power marketing, events, workflows, tooling and tenant experience across 123 hectares and 10 districts.

One source of truth. Every surface connected.

Kiosk
Wayfinding
Desktop / web
Native app
Marketing site
Embeddable widgets
Single source of truthHubSpot + Custom CMS
Client
V&A Waterfront
Sector
Mixed-use precinct
Precinct
123 hectares · 10 districts
Role
Strategy through engineering
Archetype
Platform / ecosystem build
Expertise
Product Strategy, Full Stack Development, AI and Data Engineering, CRM Workflow Automation, Cloud and DevOps Engineering

The stakes

A precinct too large to run on disconnected tools.

The V&A Waterfront is Cape Town's most-visited destination - around 24 million visitors a year across a 123-hectare, 10-district neighbourhood of over 500 stores, 80-plus restaurants, hotels, offices, museums and residences.

Behind the visitor-facing precinct sits a large B2B reality: roughly 3,000 tenants across 800 stores and businesses to engage, support and coordinate. Enormous physical scale, a huge tenant base and millions of visitors - engage all of that through fragmented, disconnected tools, and none of it scales.

The V&A Waterfront precinct, coloured by district: Portswood Ridge, Dry Dock, Quays, Clock Tower, Silo, South Arm, Marina and Canal, wrapped around the working harbour basins.
10 districts · 123 hectares · one connected precinct
0Mvisitors a year
0hectares
0districts

The ambition

One platform to connect and power the whole precinct.

One intelligent system - anchored in a single source of truth, with real-time data and multi-audience personalisation - reaching every surface from wayfinding to app to kiosk to desktop.

  1. 01

    A single source of truth - one trusted dataset feeding every surface, in real time.

  2. 02

    One platform to power marketing, events, workflows, internal tooling and experience.

  3. 03

    Multi-audience personalisation - the right content for tenant and visitor alike.

  4. 04

    Every surface drawing from the same core - wayfinding, app, kiosk and desktop.

One platform powersMarketingEventsWorkflowsInternal toolingTenant + visitor experience

The architecture

One core, engineered to feed everything.

The differentiator here is not any single module - it is the systems thinking. A single source of truth, a custom data layer that extends it, and standalone-but-connected modules that embed anywhere. We lead with the architecture and let the modules serve it.

The core
HubSpotsingle source of truth
Custom CMSapplication data layer
Standalone-but-connected modules
Native apptenant experience
Desktop / webconnected surfaces
Kiosk + wayfindingon-site, 123 ha
Every surface
Marketing site · Kiosk · App · Embeddable widgets
01

A single source of truth

Customer data lives in HubSpot as the authoritative core. Every surface derives from one trusted dataset, so the app, the desktop experience and the kiosk are never telling different stories.

02

A custom data layer

We extended HubSpot with a custom-built CMS that adds an application-data-management layer - feeding structured application data through to every module. We extended the core rather than replacing it, so the CRM stays the system of record while the platform gets the data model it needs.

03

A modular ecosystem

A set of standalone-but-connected modules draws from that core, each able to embed into any front end. Build the capability once, surface it anywhere.

How we built it

Backbone first. Then every module.

  1. Backbone

    The core, first

    The single source of truth and the custom data layer came first - the backbone everything else would draw from.

  2. Modules

    Then each module, asynchronously

    With the core in place, we built the external modules in parallel - native app, desktop, kiosk - each standalone, each connected. Native mobile where power and performance mattered most.

  3. Stitched

    One connected ecosystem

    We stitched the modules back into a single ecosystem - standalone yet connected, embeddable anywhere, all drawing from one core.

The modules

Standalone surfaces. One source of truth.

01 · Native mobile · Built for performance

The neighbourhood, in your pocket

The tenant-facing experience: notifications, news, events, campaigns, deals and tenant tooling - built native where power and performance matter.

ForTenants
The My V&A app on a phone: a Dock Road roadworks alert, a personalised morning greeting about the Timeout Market reopening, and a featured Quays District card above the tab bar.

02 · Content modules · One publish, every surface

Published once, everywhere it is needed

A tenant, an event or a deal is written once as a module, and the website, the app and the on-site kiosks all read it from there. Nothing gets re-keyed per surface, and nothing stays current in one place while it goes stale in another.

ForEditors, visitors and tenants
A content module for Zeitz MOCCA, with a title and description and a Publish button, feeding two surfaces: the on-site kiosk showing the district map and the venue's details, and the mobile app showing the same venue with call, email, directions and website actions.

03 · On-site · From the kiosk into your pocket

Scan it, and the precinct comes with you

Touchscreens across the estate handle the wayfinding, and a scan moves what is on screen onto your phone. Nobody memorises a route at the kiosk while a queue forms behind them, and the precinct carries on in your pocket once you have walked away.

ForOn-site visitors
A wayfinding kiosk showing the Victoria Wharf floor plan with a You Are Here marker and a Spur listing with a scan-for-directions QR code, and a hand holding a phone in front of it showing the same listing with a Take Me There button.

Personalisation & embeddability

One core. Many front ends. Each personalised.

Tenant-need-driven at its core, every module was designed to slot into the whole customer-facing marketing stack - kiosk, website, or as a standalone embeddable on any other front end. One platform, many front ends, each personalised per audience in real time.

  1. One module

    Built once, in the core.

  2. Many front ends

    It fans out to every surface that needs it.

    • Marketing site
    • Kiosk
    • Native app
    • Third-party embed

  3. Personalised at each

    Same module, audience-specific behaviour - which is the point of embedding it rather than rebuilding it.

One module drawn from the core fans out into many front ends, each personalised for its own audience.

The reach

Engineered to reach a whole precinct.

0tenants, engineered reach
0stores & businesses
0hectares spanned
0districts connected

One source of truth powering marketing, events, workflows, tooling and experience - real-time data and multi-audience personalisation, to every surface.

V&A Waterfront

“Our partnership with Touchfoundry has been pivotal in turning strategic insight into data and digital solutions that elevates customer experience across audiences. Strong strategic and technical capability, great chemistry and collaboration, as well as a hunger for demonstrating value are just some of the ingredients that has fuelled this partnership.”

Nisha Maharaj

Senior Marketing Manager (B2B), V&A Waterfront

The capabilities

Strategy through to systems.

  • Strategy
  • Technology
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Systems & Platforms
  • Native App
  • CX enablement

Talk to us about connecting the systems you already run.

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