Our Story
CFM Architecture was founded by Charl Marais in Cape Town, South Africa. As a boutique architecture firm, CFM Architecture can offer high quality, flexible services to a select number of clients who require a very personalised and detailed approach. The firm strives to create unique solutions that do not necessarily subscribe to any particular style or form, but rather allow the architecture to harmoniously manifest itself through a conscientious and attentive creative process where the input from the client is highly regarded.
Director Charl Marais has obtained his architecture degree at the University of the Free State. He has extensive experience in both residential as well as commercial work. While most of his career is playing out in the upmarket residential scene of Cape Town, he has also obtained valuable international exposure while working at DDA Architects in Dublin, Ireland (2006-2009) where the focus was on large scale residential projects, master planning as well as commercial work. Since the inception of CFM Architecture, Charl has begun to specialise in restaurant interiors which often leads him to the detailed design of shopfitting items, furniture pieces and light fittings. When it comes to private homes, he likes to apply his detailed approach not only to the exterior shell, but to craft carefully considered interiors, rich in the detailing and with cabinetry that blends effortlessly with spaces.
Charl has also obtained a M. Phil in Futurology (cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch, which is a programme that facilitates the student to creatively grasp the bigger patterns of life, systems and organisations in order to plan carefully for the future. This skill has proved to link perfectly with architecture to consider the making of places on earth and how they exist and change in the bigger scheme of things.
