Congratulations to Lara Liu and Clair Nicholls for their hard work, commitment, and dedication on becoming registered architects.

Lara has been with Context since 2015, after graduating from The University of Auckland in 2012. Motivated by a challenge, she relishes finding the right solution for demanding projects. She has an impressive list of retail, commercial and residential projects under her belt, having worked on everything from banks, cafés, motels, and medium-density residential projects; including apartments and terraced homes in Auckland.

More recently, Lara has worked on high-end residential projects for overseas clients. She’s in her element when she’s freehand sketching, and her attention to detail, thoroughness and systematic approach to problem solving have proved trustworthy with clients and consultants alike. She is also bilingual and is the go-to-person for our Asian market clients.

Clair is an experienced designer who honed her skills in New Zealand and overseas. She enjoys seeing things through, working side-by-side with clients from the first meeting to a project’s completion.

Before joining Context, Clair was a partner in an architecture firm, specialising in residential projects at multiple price points and scales. Her residential portfolio includes everything from high-end houses to apartments and large-scale masterplans.

Clair believes the spaces between are crucial to designing successful, people-orientated communities, and she brings this placemaking focus to the projects she works on at Context which includes designing homes for Kāinga Ora.

Well done Lara and Clair – what a wonderful start to 2022.