Watch this space: Young Whanganui architect making her mark
WATCH THE SPACE: Former Whanganui High School student Darni Struijck is now a graduate architect at Dalgleish Architects in Whanganui.
PHOTO: Stuart Munro
Emma Russell continues her series charting the stories of former Whanganui students who have gone on to success in the big wide world
When Darni Struijck decided to pursue a career in architecture, she was told it was a "male's profession" that was "difficult to hack".
Now she is a graduate, working for Dalgleish Architects in Whanganui and taking sole charge of projects from start to finish.
The former Whanganui High School student said it was a hard road to get to where she is now but working with clients to design beautiful spaces made the struggle worthwhile.
During high school, Ms Struijck tried as many subjects as she could.
"My mum told me to dip my toes in everything to figure out what I liked and eliminate what didn't click with me ... and it worked.
"I didn't know if I definitely wanted to get into architecture when I left school so I took a gap year and travelled to Holland, where I was born.
"Visiting all the European architecture and falling in love with Holland's minimalist style solidified my choice."
She returned to New Zealand to study for a bachelor of architecture at Victoria University in Wellington. After she completed the three-year course, she took on two years of a masters degree.
"Not everyone completes a masters but it does open doors because it's a prerequisite to becoming a registered architect. That basically means you can work higher up the ranks and start your own architecture business."
The 27-year-old completed her masters part-time from Whanganui while gaining work experience with Dalgleish.
"Making that leap from uni to employment can be really hard because employers like to take on people with experience, so working part-time before I finished studying gave me a big advantage," Ms Struijck said.
Two months before completing her masters she moved back to Wellington to focus on her final thesis, and was offered a job there with a large commercial architecture firm, Jasmax.
"I worked there for 1 years. It was a good experience because I wanted to grow and learn from different companies and different clients.
"Midway through last year my old boss, Craig Dalgleish, contacted me to offer me a graduate position and, at that point, I was pretty keen to come back to Whanganui and work for a smaller firm."
Ms Struijck is happily back on home turf, saying: "I love my job - especially developing client relationships and talking about their space and getting to understand what works for them."
By Emma Russell
Wanganui Chronicle 18/4/17