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SA-born and raised, JACU STRAUSS is the creative director at London-based hospitality company Lore Group. His stellar career has seen him design LUXURY HOTELS in the US and Europe – including ONE HUNDRED SHOREDITCH in London.

- MARTIN JACOBS

A PURPLE BATHROOM and sponge-paint living-room walls in the Northern Cape town of Warrenton are a far cry from designing hotels.

Still, Jacu Strauss's apartment adjacent to his parents' home was evidence of the 18-year-old's passion for interior design. It's this hands-on approach to decorating that offers insights into his art-filled interiors of hotels in Amsterdam, New York, Washington DC and London.

"Leaving Warrenton was my first-ever trip overseas, and I never returned home," he says. "I feel at home in big cities."

After a few years in London spent working in a bank, he moved to New Zealand to do a bachelor's in architectural studies at the University of Auckland. From there it was back to London to qualify as a licensed architect at Westminster University. "The global financial crisis at the time meant that finding work as an architect was challenging, so I looked for jobs that didn't necessarily involve pure architecture."