SAOTA is a leading firm of architects driven by the dynamic combination of Stefan Antoni, Philip Olmesdahl, Greg Truen, Phillippe Fouché, Mark Bullivant, Roxanne Kaye and Logen Gordon. Founded in 1986, the studio has worked on projects in 86 countries, across six continents and has projects underway in several key cities globally, including Lagos, Los Angeles, Dubai, Geneva, Moscow, Dakar, St Tropez and more recently Sao Paulo and Shenzhen.

“A longstanding studio tradition is Design Fridays - a platform for staff to present current projects and design inspiration to the entire studio. This is a highlight in the staff calendar,” comments SAOTA Director Stefan Antoni. RAD (Research, Analyse, Design) is another internal company event at the core of the SAOTA culture. This is SAOTA’s version of an internal Design Charrette where design teams present their ‘work in progress’ to the broader team and Directors. This fosters collaborative design dialogue and leads to innovative design solutions.

The Studio is also involved in community upliftment projects. 9Miles Project is a registered non-profit organisation that was founded in Cape Town in 2013. The project aims to provide mentorship and support to the at-risk youth in coastal informal settlements in Cape Town, Elands Bay and St Francis. SAOTA has also launched an internal community upliftment programme - Scholar Employment Experience Day (seed). Established in 2017, the ongoing initiative provides one day workshops to Grade 10-12 scholars from schools based in low-income areas in and around Cape Town, Western Cape. The multi-tiered one-day workshops, hosted at SAOTA’s studio, introduces scholars to careers in Architecture, Interior Architecture, Interior Design, Media, PR and Marketing, Graphic Design, IT, BIM and 3D.