Waghorn is from Ōmata, a settlement in Taranaki, New Zealand.[3] She graduated with a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Auckland and in 2017 received a PhD from RMIT University for her thesis, The practice of feeling for place: a compendium for an expanded Architecture.[4]
Waghorn is co-director with Nina Patel of HOOPLA, an Auckland social enterprise, established in 2013.[3] HOOPLA and Waghorn were recognised in 2023 at the A+W Dulux Awards winning the Munro Diversity Award which celebrates those who support diversity in the field of architecture.[5] The judges said: "Dr. Kathy Waghorn is a highly esteemed academic whose work over many decades has constantly challenged the ideas of practice and pedagogy."[6]
She has taught at the University of Auckland, then at Huri Te Ao, The School of Future Environments at AUT.[3] She is associate professor in the architecture department at Monash University, Naarm / Melbourne.[3] As a teacher the community engagement work of HOOPLA 'underpins' her pedagogy.[7]
As an artist curator, Waghorn created Muddy Urbanism, at the Auckland Triennial (2013)[3] and the New Zealand pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 15th International Architecture Exhibition.[8] A 2019 project was exhibition and book Making Ways, Alternative Architectural Practice in Aotearoa at Objectspace Auckland.[9] Waghorn was co-curator and co-editor along with architectural lecturer Mike Davis. In the work is themes of resistance to a capitalist, political economy and how architectural and design can do this.[9]
