This year, the title was shared — two firms were recognised as Interior Design Firm of the Year, each redefining what design excellence looks like.
HesseKleinloog continues to shape South Africa’s design landscape with interiors that balance intuition, craft, and intelligence. Founded by Megan Hesse and Andrea Kleinloog, the studio has become synonymous with spaces that are deeply felt yet finely considered — where function meets feeling, and design tells a human story. From boutique hospitality to bespoke residential projects, HesseKleinloog’s work remains a study in how thoughtful design can both ground and inspire.
“Interiors made individual” has become synonymous with your studio’s approach. In an era of global trends and visual saturation, how do you continue to translate this philosophy to your designs?
We interpret every project as a unique opportunity to tell a story — and no one story is the same. Every client has their own dreams, and every place has its own history, benefits, challenges, and most importantly, its own context and culture. As simple as it sounds, our approach is to make users, from the staff to the client, proud of the process and the result.
Materiality is central to your interiors. What informs your material decisions, and how do you ensure they support both function and emotional resonance?
Context is always the first departure point — we don’t believe in using materials that do not belong, or do not elevate the environment we’re working in. Building on this, we try to bring a human touch into the materials — we love seeing how materials can be manipulated, crafted, carved, woven, scratched, embroidered, moulded into a new interpretation. Quite literally, we’re looking to create materials with the fingerprints of their surrounding embedded in them.
Megan, what do you value most about working alongside Andrea?
Andrea has the ability to think so big without limitations, which is incredible in an industry where we get trapped by practicalities.She views each project as an opportunity to create better and make better. She’s also passionate about encouraging lasting work for African craftsmanship — this is something we should all learn.
Andrea, how do your individual strengths complement one another in shaping HesseKleinloog’s identity?
We’re often asked this question — I think people are looking for a spicier answer. The simple truth is that our business and bond is based on mutual respect, admiration, and empathy.
We genuinely want the best for each other — and this is woven into every facet of Hesse Kleinloog’s identity. We genuinely want our clients to be happy, our businesses to thrive economically and all the incredible women in our teams, to be supported and to flourish emotionally and within their individual career paths.
How do you typically divide roles and responsibilities — and where do your processes intersect or overlap most productively?
We’ve divided roles and responsibilities fairly organically; to play to our strengths and weaknesses. From a “federal” perspective – Andrea is banned from social media because she posted 24 posts in one night (to get it over and done with, with zero interest in the algorithm gods). However, she does drive the software and hardware decisions.
Megan is the minister of Finance, because she’s astute and thoughtful. She’s also the lead in our strategic direction — to ensure we don’t diverge from goals and the promises we uphold as a studio. Although our designers and architects are assigned to individual projects, our entire studio aligns weekly. We check the balance of projects within teams across both our Johannesburg and Cape Town studios.
We can then quickly see where the workload is imbalanced, and designers can jump in across projects to correct this. We firmly believe that no one should feel isolated and that any problem is solvable, as long as we know about it.
Looking back, is there a project that feels particularly defining for you — one that captures the essence of your design philosophy or shifted the way you approach your work?
Our first impulse is to say that there is no single project that has shaped us, but rather a culmination of projects. For example, with Singita Kwitonda (2019), we realised a dream to work in Africa, specifically, in Rwanda, with a world class team. We’re growing that relationship to this day. In the design and construction of Kruger Shalati (2020), we were challenged to bring to life the client’s vision of a hotel… on a bridge. We are thankful to Nandos (2017-2022) for allowing us to cut our teeth on commercial restaurant projects that wanted to capture a proudly South African experience.
Silverback (2025) allowed us to create an award-winning experience with STUDIO. Jana + Koos, showcasing the symbiosis of brand and interior design experience in a breathtaking way. Our work with GASS Architecture Studio on the monumental South African Reserve Bank Head Office Extension — from 2022, to completion at the end of 2025 — has taught us how to grow with a project — to mature with systems and to work in complex teams, on immense scales.As we continue on our journey, these relationships — their people, and their places — have indelibly shaped us.
After a decade of transformative projects and now holding the title of Interior Design Firm of the Year, what excites you most about the next chapter for HesseKleinloog?
Truthfully, the most important award for us was Interior Design Firm of the Year. We wanted to give credence to the hard work, long hours, hot days, mosquito-filled nights, and bumpy flights that our team have embraced with grace. We haven’t really thought about the next chapter — probably because we are immersed in it — but it can only be an exciting read, with our wonderful clients and a superlative team.
