Taulata Gjerqeku

Taulata Gjerqeku is a Senior Registered Architect in Cato Bolam's Henderson office. In practice since 2010 across residential and retail development, her recent work has focussed on residential terraces, duplexes, walk-up apartments and single dwellings on developments ranging from 5 to 165 units - often for returning clients.

She covers the full sequence from concept and detailed design through resource and building consents, then on to site, coordinating the civil, structural, traffic and landscape input into the drawings. She takes clients on the design journey with her rather than presenting a finished answer: "the best projects are those where you work side-by-side with clients to bring their vision to life and take it further."

Her interest in adaptable architecture goes back to her master's thesis on kinetic architecture: buildings that move and change rather than sit still, designed to become "a fluid backdrop to our constantly changing way of life." In a tight market that is also commercial: a building that can adapt holds its value longer than one that only suits the brief it was drawn for.

Whether that intent survives is decided in the detail, so the drawing package is where she puts her effort and she stays with her projects on site while they are built.

Outside the office she travels as often as she can and is unapologetic about photographing other people's buildings while she is supposed to be on holiday. The rest of her time belongs to her young daughter, who has taught her more about life than any other experience.