Meet The Team

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Meet The Team

Willem Pretorius
Pr Arch MIArch B. Arch (UFS)
Bachelor of Architecture

University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Before establishing Prime Architects in 2017 with co-founder Howard Dembo, Willem headed up the Architectural Design Department at H.E.C, a multi-disciplinary Design firm based in Doha, Qatar. He relocated to Qatar and filled this position from January 2016 to May 2017.

He was responsible for the design for a variety of prominent projects both locally and abroad, including a Waldorf Astoria Resort development in the Maldives and various VIP Palace interior schemes. Prior to H.E.C Willem spent 16 years as an employee at Northpoint Architects based in Bryanston, where he became a Director at the beginning of 2009.

During his tenure at Northpoint he was directly responsible for the design of a wide range of projects from casinos, resorts and hotel projects to large scale mixed-use Master Plans.

Earlier on in his professional career Willem gained extensive Residential and Commercial design experience working for well-known Architectural Design Firms such as MWLF and A.L.A Architects. Willem Pretorius has been in his field for the last 24 years and during this period he was Lead Architect on a Large portfolio of work.

Delivering high quality and inspirational projects

Howard Dembo
Pr Arch MIArch B. Arch (UFS)
Bachelor of Architecture

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Howard Dembo has had vast experience in the field of Architecture and Interior Design. He is an accomplished designer and Project Architect who has managed extremely large projects from inception, through technical documentation and supervision to handover.

After qualifying from Wits University in 1995, he joined MLH and Partners where he worked on prestigious Hotel Resorts, Game Lodges and Golf Course Estates. Approximately Three years later, MLH merged with Northpoint Pty Ltd in 1998. At Northpoint, Howard broadened his horizons by becoming the Lead Architect on a multitude of projects, including prominent Casino Developments, International and Local Hotel Resorts and Mixed-use Developments. His career continued to soar as he grew through the ranks, first becoming an Associate Partner in 2004 and then being promoted to Director in 2009.

Howard relocated to Doha-Qatar in January 2016 to head up the Architecture Design Department of H.E.C, an International multi-disciplinary Design Firm. Here he continued to work on prestigious projects which included the prominent Waldorf Astoria Hotel Resort development in the Maldives and a multitude of VIP Palace Interior Schemes as well as various other mixed-use Projects in Doha.