Toni Roberts (Clements), Class of '85 B Arch, CKDNZ Director of Kitchen Architecture Ltd
Wednesday, 1 July 2020

We heard about Westlake alumna Toni Roberts’ interview by ‘Women in Industry’ earlier this year, and how her can-do attitude and desire to make a real difference to the way families live, have contributed to her success.  

Her Westlake years played a small part in that drive. As a female in the 80s, the journey to a career in architectural design was somewhat different to now. 
 
She says, “Throughout my high school years, rather than picking a ‘career’ early, we were encouraged to gain skills and learn in a range of fields, follow what you love doing, and fed the mantra “Girls can do anything”.
 
A knack for mathematics (pattern finding), physics (reasoning) and art (seeing), led to my desire to learn Technical Drawing which required walking into an all-boys school (Westlake) twice a week as a shy 15-year-old. Success in this led to my degree where the invaluable skills of scale, human-directed design and space appreciation were further nurtured.”

After completing a degree in Architecture at The University of Auckland, and an architecture internship, Toni went on to specialise in kitchens, establishing her business “Kitchen Architecture”. In 2000 she was involved in the founding of the Independent Designers Group where experienced designers still meet regularly for education, sharing inspiration and networking.

Toni recently designed a second kitchen and bathroom for an alumna friend, Sarah, from her Class of ’85.  Both mid-century architectural homes, the renovations have featured in prominent home magazines. Toni especially loves helping her local North Shore connections.
 
Toni’s design projects have won several awards, she has featured in premium home magazines, conducted guest tutoring modules at Unitec, as well as sharing her knowledge at seminars.

She is now based in Silverdale in a purpose-built studio and family home that she designed, where the kitchen ‘showroom’ performs as a test space and physical ‘experiment’ of ergonomic design improvements.  
 
For the full interview

For Kitchen Architecture’s website