Architect - Jani Meyer

Meyer has found the challenges of architecture exciting. He has been fortunate in that from a very early age he has known that he wanted to be an architect. With a clear vision of the future and an unwavering enthusiasm for design, he has achieved his goals with passionate and energetic dedication. From a conservative upbringing in Pretoria, Meyer matriculated from the Pretoria School of the Arts with a notable talent for design and graphics as well as a superb understanding of the various approaches to form. This background prepared him well for the study of architecture at Pretoria University where he completed the first three years of his studies. He completed the latter years of his degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he discovered a different perspective of life in the politically sensitised UCT environment of the early 70s. Although architectural students at the time completed their studies in a relatively stifled atmosphere in terms of architectural direction, Meyer once again excelled at his studies. After graduation, the commencement of Meyer’s career was put on hold by compulsory military service obligations. Two years in the naval military intelligence division did little to dampen his enthusiasm for architecture. After his release from the Navy, he started his own practice with a former fellow UCT student – a courageous move for a recent graduate with little practical experience in the 1970s. After three years he gave up his practice to accept an offer in Canada for a short while. He returned to South Africa and joined the business development section of Stauch Vorster Architects where he eventually became an associate partner.He considers himself extremely privileged to have had this opportunity. In Stauch Vorster’s Johannesburg and Cape Town offices, Meyer learned all the business aspects and commercial disciplines of architecture, which were not commonly taught in universities at the time. After considerable tenure with Stauch Vorster Meyer joined BAI in 2002 where his talent for marrying the business drivers of a project to design, ideally suited him for the challenge of directing BAI’s Cape Town office. Under his guidance, BAI Cape Town (previously only a production office) has grown into a full design and project management practice and continues to develop an impressive portfolio of commercial projects. With tenacity and a notable passion for everything he does, Meyer has the ability to solve critical design problems on large mixed-use developments. It is his knowledge of the various components, how they work and how to organize them so that they are the backbone of new developments that make him, his team and his projects, so successful.