Marene du Toit

I completed Matric in 2005 with full exemption and commenced my studies in Interior Architecture at the University of Pretoria in 2006. I changed direction at the end of 2007, enrolling at Inscape Design College in two courses simultaneously. Both courses were completed in 2009 whilst working at Pillow Talk, a small interior store, as the Store Manager.

In 2010 I started at Nuclear Structural Engineering (NSE) as a Junior Draughtsman. I mainly worked on finite element mesh models of nuclear structures for seismic analy- sis, wrote training courses and co-designed on steel structures.

After three years at NSE, I pursued a career in a different direction at Fedgroup as a Draughtsman in their property department. My main duties included measuring of properties, draughting as-built drawings and calculating rentable areas. I successfully completed a course at Sapoa during my work at Fedgroup. The property department later split from the parent-company and rebranded as Fieldspace Properties.

Early in 2015, I was presented with the opportunity to finish my studies in Interior Architecture at the University of Pretoria. It was a hard decision to make since the course was full-time and the implication was that I would have to leave my job. I decided to plunge in and after a rigorous process, I was granted acceptance.

I commenced my studies in 2016 as a first year student. I was awarded the best student in design in interior architecture for 2017 and received my Golden Key award after completing my Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Architecture. In 2019, I pursued post-grad studies and completed my Honours degree, earning an award for best design student in interior architecture for the year. Since February 2021, I’ve been working as an independent contractor.