Estelle Meiring

DIRECTOR: PARAGON ARCHITECTS

With an uncle and a great-uncle as architects, Estelle always saw architecture as the perfect blend of science and art, and completed her degree at the University of Pretoria in 2002. 

She started her career working for a Pretoria/Cape Town based firm, R&L Architects, specialising in retail and industrial architecture. She then moved on to Broadway Malyan, a large commercial firm in London, where she worked on office and mixed-use projects, spending a lot of time on site and gaining substantial hands-on experience of the building process. 

Following her return to South Africa in 2005 to join Paragon Architects, Estelle was offered Paragon’s first ever Associate role in 2008, and a Directorship in 2016.  In 2015 she obtained an MSc in Property Development & Management from the University of the Witwatersrand – this knowledge and her keen interest in the entire property development and management process have equipped her to service Paragon’s clients better by looking at buildings with a more holistic view.

Estelle oversees one of three large production teams that delivers a wide range of architectural projects including industrial, office, student housing and education. Her portfolio includes overseeing the financial aspects of the company, including introducing an integrated ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system into the Paragon Group and revolutionizing the way that the company handles accounting, planning, pricing and tracking of projects.

Estelle is a regular guest lecturer at the School of Construction Economics at Wits University. She believes that, in the words of the great designer, Charles Eames, “The details are not the details.  They make the design”; and that good design should be pleasing, mixed with a healthy dose of function.