Emma FitzGerald (MArch’08) graduated with her Masters of Architecture, focusing her thesis on a semi-rural village in her birth country of Lesotho. She then worked for Kassner Goodspeed Architects in Halifax for two years, gaining experience in multi-storey residential buildings.

Teaching in the Gambia

After two years of office life she felt compelled to return to Africa, this time to The Gambia, and was there from December 2011-May 2012 teaching architecture as a CIDA intern, in partnership with Dalhousie University. She enjoyed re-connecting with past classmates Isidore Jatta and Rohey Jobe, and learning about their country through the lens of community based architecture.

Connecting to the Past

Emma had also been working on an ongoing art project based in Lesotho, bringing to light the social and ecological impact of denim production which is a major industry there. At this time she also returned to Lesotho to work collaboratively with women textile workers and craftspeople. This work culminated in the exhibit “Peace Rain Prosperity” in 2013 in Halifax.

Work at Home

Upon her return from Africa, Emma worked with the Cities & Environment Unit, building a storage shed for kayaks with high school students and Dal architecture students on the Chapel Island First Nations Reserve in Cape Breton. She also worked for Anne Sinclair Architect, and Michael Napier Architecture, gaining more skill in both the not-for-profit world and large scale developments. After another contract came to an end, she decided to combine her love of drawing, design, and drawing on location. This prompted the formation of her own business, Emma FitzGerald Art & Design. The backbone of the business is House portraits, commemorating the memories people make in their homes in the form of colourful sketches. Emma borrows from skills learned in architecture offices; she sketches by hand, and then adds the colour digitally. The art work is then printed as a giclee on cotton rag paper, making it an archival quality artwork.

“Hand Drawn Halifax”

Drawing from life in her neighbourhood led to her most recent project, a book about neighbourhoods of Halifax, to be published in September 2015 with Formac Lorimer, called “Hand Drawn Halifax”. The book captures the life of the many neighbourhoods of Halifax, and is available for pre-order at www.formac.ca.

Current Activities

Emma has become well-known throughout Halifax for her drawings, and in 2014 she taught urban sketching at the 5th International Urban Sketching Symposium, in Paraty, Brazil, alongside architectural sketching guru Frank Ching. She has also managed to complete some built projects on her own, including an Arbour at the Common Roots Urban Farm, which is located next to a major hospital in Halifax. The building of the Arbour allows patients, visiting family members and hospital staff better access to the therapeutic landscape of the Urban Farm. Emma continues to enjoy the diverse challenges running her own business presents. In 2013 she was awarded the Intern Architect Award by the RAIC, and as follow up to her award, which mandated she promote architecture, she has worked with youth at St. George’s Youthnet, an inner city after school program on a weekly basis ever since, exposing them to art and architecture. In her spare time Emma enjoys learning about the plants of Nova Scotia, and continues to take dance classes, something that helped her through the architecture program.