Jani Truter is a professional architect and urban designer, having obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cape Town and more recently completed two consecutive advanced masters’ degrees at KU Leuven in Belgium, a Master of Human Settlements and Master of Urbanism and Strategic Spatial Planning.

She currently works for a medium-sized private practice in Stellenbosch on a range of urban design projects, from campus design to collaborative community initiatives. She is presently involved in the development of two masterplans for the University of Stellenbosch and lectures part-time at the University of Cape Town in the Master of Urban Design programme. Jani has experience in both public and private projects of various scales and typologies, as well as competitions, exhibitions, public participation events, public art and design-based research. She has been involved in several design competitions, most notably as part of the winning teams for the Venice Biennale 2018 Student Competition and the Cape Town International Conference Centre 2 Architectural Concept Competition.

Jani believes good design and urbanism can transform African cities and socio-economic paradigms, especially in the face of increased global and local politics and environmental challenges. Her thesis was an urban design investigation on how urban agriculture can act as a socio-spatial catalyst to address food, water, land tenure and socio-economic security, either directly or indirectly. The research is based in Philippi, Cape Town, and was awarded the international DAIDA Foundation Award for Excellence at Leuven in 2019.