Catherine Burd studied architecture at Manchester University and at the Polytechnic of Central London. Her experience before setting up in private practice has been in-depth and varied, with periods spent with Robert Barnes, Ron Herron, HTA Architects, van Heyningen & Haward Architects and Conran Design Partnership, where she worked on a variety of award-winning education, housing, restaurant and master-planning projects. In 1996 she started to take on small scale private commissions, and in 1998 formed Burd Haward Marston Architects with Buddy Haward and Lucy Marston. After a break having children and travelling, Catherine returned to work, re-forming Burd Haward Architects in 2004.

Alongside practice, Catherine has taught and lectured widely in the UK. She ran degree studios at South Bank and Westminster Universities, and has been invited critic at a range of architecture schools, including the AA, Kingston, London Met, Liverpool and UCL. She has lectured on the practice's work at the RIBA, the Goethe Institute, the Architecture Foundation and the University of Virginia, US. She was a member of the RIBA judging panel for the Manser Medal 2003 and was invited to become an RIBA Advisor in 2005.