Chris van Niekerk is a professional architect with 18 years' working experience in high-end residential and small-scale commercial projects. He graduated Cum Laude from the University of Pretoria and his B.Arch thesis was awarded the South African Corobrik award in 2003, the most sought-after architectural award at student level for the project entitled ‘Extraneousness’. The work was later included in the Royal Institute of British Architecture's yearly publication entitled ‘Visions for the Future’ in 2003. It was also included in the book 'Architecture in a Democratic South Africa', edited and convened by Prof 'Ora Joubert and published by Bell-Roberts in 2018.