{"id":821060,"date":"2025-04-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821060"},"modified":"2025-04-16T08:00:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T06:00:28","slug":"business-talk-blok-ceo-jacques-van-embden-on-the-importance-of-urban-design-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/821060\/business-talk-blok-ceo-jacques-van-embden-on-the-importance-of-urban-design-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Talk \u2013 Blok CEO Jacques van Embden on the importance of urban design in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, Blok Founder and CEO Jacques van Embden talks about urban design, mobility, and public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Embden has a rich history in the South African property market. He founded Prime Point Properties in 2010, and its huge success saw van Embden launch Prime Letting Services soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Embden served as the CEO of both companies, gaining extensive first-hand experience in the property market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This, combined with his architectural experience, saw him found Blok, a residential property development business, in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company now has 19 developments under its belt, thanks to van Embden\u2019s leadership as CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Embden received a Master&#8217;s in Architecture at the University of Cape Town in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The interview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, van Embden explains where his love for urban cities and spaces came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He highlights the importance of urban design, mobility, and public spaces for South Africa, and explains how Blok supports this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Embden then explains how Blok builds compact apartments that are space-conscious without compromising quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also talks about the short-term letting industry in Cape Town and the initiatives that Blok gets involved in within neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, van Embden suggests what the future holds for Blok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the full interview with Blok CEO Jacques van Embden below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Business Talk - Jacques van Emden on the importance of urban design, mobility and public spaces\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s2L0q8FP6fg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Van Embden discusses how Blok builds compact apartments that are space-conscious without compromising quality of life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":821063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[11889,15508,4038],"class_list":["post-821060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-blok","tag-businesstalk","tag-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821065,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821060\/revisions\/821065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}