Elena Brandt
Architectural consultant
for renovations & heritage approvals
Pretoria — working with private clients since 2011.
Introduction
Most renovations fail on paper long before they fail on site.
I advise homeowners through the part of building that has no scaffolding: the drawings, the approvals, the decisions that are expensive to reverse. My clients usually arrive with a house they love and a process they don't understand. I stay until both make sense.
I am independent — I don't sell construction, and I don't take commissions from anyone I recommend. The advice is the product.
Approach
How I work
Read the house first
Every property carries constraints — structural, legal, historical. I map them before anyone sketches, so the design starts from what is actually possible.
Respect the record
Heritage approval is not an obstacle course; it is an argument, made properly, to people who care about the same streets you do. I write those arguments well.
Say the hard thing early
If a plan won't be approved, or won't be worth its cost, you will hear it from me in the first month — not from the council in the ninth.
Selected work
Recent engagements
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Victorian double-storey, Clydesdale — 2025
Heritage approval for a rear addition; consent granted without revision on first submission.
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1930s bungalow, Brooklyn — 2024
Full renovation advisory: scope, architect selection, and council submissions over fourteen months.
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Church hall conversion, Pretoria North — 2024
Feasibility and Section 34 permit strategy for a change of use the owners had been told was impossible.
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Sandstone cottage, Waterkloof — 2023
Restoration guidance and materials sourcing after storm damage to a provincially listed façade.
About
I trained as an architect and spent nine years in practice before moving to the advisory side, where I found the work I actually wanted: helping one household at a time make good decisions about old buildings. I live in Pretoria, in a 1926 house that has taught me most of what the degree didn't.
Credentials
M.Arch (University of Pretoria) · SACAP registered professional · Member, Institute for Heritage Practitioners · 14 years advising on renovations and Section 34 / 38 approvals in Gauteng.
Inquiry
Begin a conversation
Write a few lines about the property and what you hope to do with it. I reply personally, usually within two working days.