about us
Drew Architects (Pty) Ltd is a medium-sized, multi-disciplinary, boutique design business with a studio in Parkhurst, Johannesburg and Constantia, Cape Town.
In our former lives we were partners in large commercial firms of architects both in the UK and South Africa and have collectively gathered 40+ years of diverse project experience. We have expertise in the following project types: commercial; leisure; hospitality; industrial; educational; sports; retail; aviation and residential. Our diverse residential experience includes upmarket residential estates and golf estates, multi-storey and multi-unit residential developments to luxury, high-end homes and holiday homes. We have delivered a wide range of projects throughout South Africa, across the African continent, and have also worked in the United Kingdom and Europe.
We are a group of like-minded, creative thinkers who thrive on delivering innovative, beautiful, simple, practical and environmentally responsible design solutions to meet and exceed our clients’ diverse needs.
We are currently working in several locations across Southern Africa, in Mauritius and also in the United Kingdom.
In our former lives we were partners in large commercial firms of architects both in the UK and South Africa and have collectively gathered 40+ years of diverse project experience. We have expertise in the following project types: commercial; leisure; hospitality; industrial; educational; sports; retail; aviation and residential. Our diverse residential experience includes upmarket residential estates and golf estates, multi-storey and multi-unit residential developments to luxury, high-end homes and holiday homes. We have delivered a wide range of projects throughout South Africa, across the African continent, and have also worked in the United Kingdom and Europe.
We are a group of like-minded, creative thinkers who thrive on delivering innovative, beautiful, simple, practical and environmentally responsible design solutions to meet and exceed our clients’ diverse needs.
We are currently working in several locations across Southern Africa, in Mauritius and also in the United Kingdom.
our values + mission
Mutual respect, trust, integrity and quality are the cornerstones of our business.
We are about adding real, meaningful, measurable value.
If our buildings are not beautiful, functional and timeless, if they don’t inspire, are not thought-provoking or do not resonate with people we have not done our job.
We sincerely believe what we do can bring positive change to the world.
We are fuelled by our passion to make a difference - we love what we do and it shows.
In design we believe one’s greatest investment is timelessness.
We understand and appreciate that what we do is ultimately not about buildings but about people and relationships.
We are creative blue-sky thinkers but are also detail-orientated. We are meticulous in our architectural process.
Our architectural approach is rooted in authenticity and context. We believe the success of buildings lies in their relationship with their people, their site, climate and broader context. We endeavour to craft our buildings in order to connect people with their surroundings because we believe connecting people with nature instils a profound sense of well-being in the human spirit.
All work that leaves our studio does so with confidence and pride.
We challenge the traditional and outdated paradigm of the large, cumbersome architectural practice. We have consciously structured our business to offer a perfectly weighted solution of youth, energy, passion and innovation balanced by depth of experience and expertise.
Our intention is to deliver a personal, professional, peace of mind service to every client.
At Drew Architects we are about exceeding expectations.
We are about adding real, meaningful, measurable value.
If our buildings are not beautiful, functional and timeless, if they don’t inspire, are not thought-provoking or do not resonate with people we have not done our job.
We sincerely believe what we do can bring positive change to the world.
We are fuelled by our passion to make a difference - we love what we do and it shows.
In design we believe one’s greatest investment is timelessness.
We understand and appreciate that what we do is ultimately not about buildings but about people and relationships.
We are creative blue-sky thinkers but are also detail-orientated. We are meticulous in our architectural process.
Our architectural approach is rooted in authenticity and context. We believe the success of buildings lies in their relationship with their people, their site, climate and broader context. We endeavour to craft our buildings in order to connect people with their surroundings because we believe connecting people with nature instils a profound sense of well-being in the human spirit.
All work that leaves our studio does so with confidence and pride.
We challenge the traditional and outdated paradigm of the large, cumbersome architectural practice. We have consciously structured our business to offer a perfectly weighted solution of youth, energy, passion and innovation balanced by depth of experience and expertise.
Our intention is to deliver a personal, professional, peace of mind service to every client.
At Drew Architects we are about exceeding expectations.
company profile
Drew Architects is made up of a group of young, like-minded, highly trained and experienced individuals. We cut our teeth working our way to the top of large, respected design firms in both South Africa and internationally prior to founding Drew Architects in 2008.
Drew was created to deliver quality with integrity and excellence with humility.
Our objective is to offer a return to personal relationships and a return to craft but to deliver innovation, contemporary thinking and timeless design. We have not forgotten the value inherent in engaging with a problem with pen and paper, but we also leverage the significant advances made available to us by cutting edge computer software, technology and building materials. We utilise 3D computer modelling and animation software because we understand that buildings are inherently 3-dimensional objects and therefore better conceived, presented, resolved, understood and documented in 3-dimensions.
Andrew Payne is the founder and Managing Director of Drew Architects (Pty) Ltd. Andrew gained his experience in several large, leading commercial firms of architects and was most recently partner at one of the largest commercial firms in Southern Africa, where he assumed the lead design and project architect role on several diverse residential, leisure and commercial projects with contract values of up to R400m in several different Southern African countries. Prior to that Andrew gained valuable international experience as a lead design architect in a prominent firm of architects based in London, UK. Andrew is head of new business and the creative director.
The balance of leadership in the practice is held with Dale Steele, who is also minority shareholder.
Both former partners of their respective practices, Dale Steele, formerly an associate partner of his prior practice, is a qualified architect with 15+ year’s experience and heads design development, presentation and is our resident Revit genius and contract specialist.
Leadership is supported by graduate architects, candidate architects, architectural technologists as well as architectural interns who we take pride in mentoring throughout their post-graduate architectural studies.
In addition, Drew also shares collaborative relationships with several firms of architects, interior designers, quantity surveyors, engineers, landscape architects and documentation specialists with whom we collaborate on a project by project demand basis. This provides significant depth and flexibility to our practice and affords us the opportunity to take on a very broad range of project scales and typologies without any risk to our clients.
Drew was created to deliver quality with integrity and excellence with humility.
Our objective is to offer a return to personal relationships and a return to craft but to deliver innovation, contemporary thinking and timeless design. We have not forgotten the value inherent in engaging with a problem with pen and paper, but we also leverage the significant advances made available to us by cutting edge computer software, technology and building materials. We utilise 3D computer modelling and animation software because we understand that buildings are inherently 3-dimensional objects and therefore better conceived, presented, resolved, understood and documented in 3-dimensions.
Andrew Payne is the founder and Managing Director of Drew Architects (Pty) Ltd. Andrew gained his experience in several large, leading commercial firms of architects and was most recently partner at one of the largest commercial firms in Southern Africa, where he assumed the lead design and project architect role on several diverse residential, leisure and commercial projects with contract values of up to R400m in several different Southern African countries. Prior to that Andrew gained valuable international experience as a lead design architect in a prominent firm of architects based in London, UK. Andrew is head of new business and the creative director.
The balance of leadership in the practice is held with Dale Steele, who is also minority shareholder.
Both former partners of their respective practices, Dale Steele, formerly an associate partner of his prior practice, is a qualified architect with 15+ year’s experience and heads design development, presentation and is our resident Revit genius and contract specialist.
Leadership is supported by graduate architects, candidate architects, architectural technologists as well as architectural interns who we take pride in mentoring throughout their post-graduate architectural studies.
In addition, Drew also shares collaborative relationships with several firms of architects, interior designers, quantity surveyors, engineers, landscape architects and documentation specialists with whom we collaborate on a project by project demand basis. This provides significant depth and flexibility to our practice and affords us the opportunity to take on a very broad range of project scales and typologies without any risk to our clients.
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