Meet Leigh Bishop, dhk Partner and Executive Director
29 October 2024
We managed to carve out some time in Leigh Bishop’s schedule to discuss her architectural career, which spans 22 years, and her current role at dhk as Partner and Executive Director. As well as steering a busy team, Leigh leads the practice’s strategic HR direction.
From an early age, Leigh knew she wanted to be an architect and believes architecture is all around us and shapes our daily lives. “I had quite a romanticised notion about the job and what it entailed, but I always wanted to design buildings,” she says.
Leigh’s academic life started out as a law student at University of KwaZulu-Natal. She changed course after two years, finding the material “unsatisfying”. She went on to pursue her Bachelor of Architecture (Honours), later becoming a South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP) registered architect. Her parents supported her decision, recognising, as Leigh says, “when you’re passionate about something, you’re naturally better at it.”
A few years after graduation, in 2009, Leigh established her practice Leigh Bishop Architects in Durban, which she ran until 2018, managing projects from inception to completion in the healthcare, high-end residential and commercial sectors. A key highlight during this time was in 2013, when she completed a specialist oncology hospital facility and regional headquarters for a major laboratory group. Other projects include several high-end residences and multiple unit residential complexes.
Leigh joined dhk in 2019, and serves as both Partner and Executive Director within a leadership structure of nine Partners, supported by a strong board of directors and various Senior Associates and Associates. In this role, Leigh and the senior leadership are focused on shaping dhk’s evolution and driving the practice forward. Leigh also heads up the Human Resources portfolio, leading its strategic development during a period of significant change.
“Like many aspects of dhk, from finance, communications to our 3D and BIM departments, HR is evolving. We have grown dramatically over the last few years and that rapid growth is driving the need to evolve to effectively scale the business,” she says.
For Leigh, this evolution means empowering individuals through specialisation. “As we grow, senior leadership can’t manage everything. We need specialists in defined areas of the company’s structure,” she explains. “To help people reach higher, you need to give them a solid foundation. That’s why we’re working to formalise and systematise various areas, including HR.”
Beyond her executive responsibilities, Leigh leads an architectural team working on various residential and hospitality projects, overseeing design delivery and implementation. Her team’s portfolio has included several hospitality projects, multiple unit residential schemes, a specialist hospital in Francistown, Botswana, and numerous estate developments for Balwin Properties in the Western Cape.
Currently, this team is involved in the redevelopment of City Park, which occupies an entire city block bounded by Bree, Loop, Longmarket and Church Streets in the most central part of the Cape Town City Bowl. This is an innovative mixed-use development comprising a 127-key hotel, 68 branded apartments, retail space, 1 002 parking bays, 10 500 m² of premium grade offices and a co-working space.
Throughout her work, Leigh emphasises empowering team members and fostering a collaborative, inclusive environment – something at the heart of dhk’s DNA.
“You’ve got to give credit where it’s due, push people forward and give them a platform, tools and latitude to perform their role to the fullest. That’s what allows people to step forward and fully occupy their roles. I try to maintain an atmosphere where people can fail and make mistakes, assuring them that it’s okay along the way,” Leigh explains.
She laughs, adding, “I don’t want it to sound like I’m encouraging a litany of errors, but it’s about creating an inclusive, collaborative environment where people feel empowered to express themselves and experiment. If you don’t create that space, people don’t grow and you don’t innovate. We can talk about striving for excellence, but what drives that is an atmosphere where people are allowed to be themselves, take risks and push boundaries.”
Leigh references Danish physicist Niels Bohr’s famous observation that, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” She believes that’s how true learning happens and that once you’ve experienced those failures and learned from them, you build the confidence to take on new challenges.
After years of working for other firms and running her own practice in Durban, the transition to her current role has been a welcome development for Leigh. She concedes that a different mindset is needed as a leader of a large practice from being a sole proprietor. “When you’re running your own business, you’re the only checkpoint – which has both advantages and disadvantages,” she says.
She enjoys the strong support at dhk, which she believes also makes it easier to scale through delegation in a way that is very difficult as a sole trader.
While modernism strikes a chord with Leigh in terms of inspiration, the way she describes her approach to design matches dhk’s holistic, integrated philosophy. The shared focus on putting people at the centre of design made it a perfect match from the start.
Leigh explains: “I like to be context driven and take all the indicators into account. It’s rather the drivers of the project that determine the type of architecture. So, it’s more of a sensitive and responsive approach to design that I favour. It’s also about practicality.
“I think you need to come up with the most efficient solution, a solution that’s most responsive to the context, site and climate within which you find it, and you must be sensitive to your client’s needs in terms of budget, time constraints. They’re all outputs governed by unique characteristics of that project. That’s what drives me a lot. It’s less about bold statements and more about sensitivity and responsiveness to the needs of the project which is aligned with the practice’s general ethos.”
Leigh references Battery Park as one of her favourite dhk projects that encapsulates this ethos.
She explains: “It’s essentially a parking area with a facing on it, which could have been quite mundane. It’s also a precious heritage resource that we made interventions in. I think the way it was done was handled quite sensitively. I think it’s also very successful in the way it presents itself and in the way it’s been accepted by the community. It’s a much-loved space and it’s well tenanted and used. It’s a project that has a lot more joy and beauty to it. It was handled very well.”
In April 2024, Leigh’s contributions to architecture earned her recognition on Africans Column’s list of 50 Influential African Women Architects. She was among seven other amazing South African women architects on the list and was lauded for her commitment to inspiring inclusivity and gender equality in architecture, striving to motivate and create space for future female leaders in the industry.
When asked about her impressions of how the industry has evolved in terms of gender diversity since she started her career and what changes she’d like to see, Leigh believes that the industry is gradually evolving, although it remains a male-dominated field.
“When I started there was far less gender diversity than there is now. Every year it kind of improves. You could tell with our graduating class. We were completely outnumbered in terms of men versus women and that’s obviously what’s going out into the world, but it’s still very male dominated. I would love to see it changing faster, but you’re redressing a situation that was completely out of balance before and so it takes time,” she says.
With 22 years in the industry, it’s safe to say that Leigh, who also juggles the roles of daughter, sister, wife and mother to her 15-year-old daughter, knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in the industry. She’s open about the demands of the profession, saying that architecture requires dedication and hard work, and the ability to not only look at the world, but to see the world beyond your own and through different eyes.
She concludes: “You have to be passionate about what you’re doing and fully invested in this career. There’s also a lot of responsibility and risk. In terms of building projects, architects are seen as the lead. We have to lead the design, coordination, packaging, presentation and on-site supervision of projects. It’s an incredibly responsible role and you have to be willing to take on that kind of responsibility. I think if it’s something you’re passionate about, it can be incredibly rewarding.
“If it’s your passion and you can see that for yourself, then success will come naturally. I also think architectural knowledge is esoteric and difficult to come by. The training at university doesn’t prepare you for real working world. You’ve got to be out there and curious and expose yourself.”
