[1][3] She was educated at Diocesan School for Girls, and later in Hawke's Bay at Woodford House, where she studied sculpture, music, art and painting.

[4][1] She completed high school in 1929 and although she was interested in becoming an architect, her mother was ill and so Lamb returned home to take care of her.

[6] In her third year, her lecturer Vernon Brown gave her a fail grade while giving men with lower marks a pass.

[1] Lamb subsequently moved to London to finish her architecture studies and passed the examinations of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1949.

She initially worked from rooms in Lower Symonds Street, then in the mid-1960s moved her offices to a building designed by her employee Tony Boon in Parnell.