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Founded in Johannesburg, with a Dubai studio since 2024. We engage selectively, and personally — every project is led by the founder.
Aevum Concepts & Design began as a furniture practice — sourcing Italian-made pieces direct from the workshops, for clients building or renovating in Johannesburg. Over the years those relationships became the studio's foundation.
As our clients took on larger projects, the brief expanded. They wanted the joinery to belong to the same conversation as the furniture; the lighting to be planned alongside the cabinetry; the stone to resolve at the same joint as the wall finish. Today the studio holds that line — from the first joinery elevation to the last cushion specification — with furniture procurement sitting as one strand of a broader interior design service.
In 2024 we opened a Dubai studio to serve clients in the UAE and the Gulf, with the same hand and the same standards.
Shaista founded Aevum in 2010, after 16 years at Citibank N.A. across Karachi, Nairobi, Budapest, and Johannesburg in corporate finance, transaction structuring, and project finance.
She holds an MBA and BBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi — Silver Medal (MBA) and Gold Medal in Finance (BBA). She has personally led every Aevum project to completion. The same discipline applied to a banking transaction is applied to every joinery drawing the studio produces.
She also leads Aevum Developments — the sister-company that designs and delivers residential schemes across South Africa and the UAE.
Four principles that guide how the studio works.
We choose every joinery profile, every stone, every fabric the way a writer chooses a word — once, for a reason.
No jargon. No hyperbole. The work has to read; the writing has to read with it.
We state our point of view without qualification. Then we listen, and refine.
Our language has structure: precise nouns, active verbs, measured rhythm. The interiors follow the same logic.
Our sister-company designs and delivers residential schemes across South Africa and the UAE — R500m+ aggregate value across 16 projects to date. Where Concepts & Design holds the interior line, Developments holds the development line: land sourcing, design, project finance, construction, and sales.
The two studios operate independently but share the same standards, the same founder, and the same discipline.
Visit Aevum Developments →A first conversation, no obligation. Tell us about the project; we'll tell you where we'd begin.
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