We ♥ Emma Burke Newman

At New Practice, we mostly knew Emma through times spent together at work. When we come together and recall them, finding that all our memories of her are joyous and radiant is the greatest honour: she enjoyed her time with us, and invited us to share in the joy within her life. In sharing these memories together, and coming to understand them in the context of those who also loved her, something that has emerged is a constant reference to colour – her love of bold colour, and her radiant, bright personality embodying this colour. This has revealed a collective truth for us we already intuitively knew separately: she was someone who embodied colour, and radiated joy through it.

There was such depth to her joy; it almost seems we can’t represent it without short-changing her complexity as a person, as if we are sitting perched together looking through a kaleidoscope, describing what we can see in detailed recollections but never in totality –one aperture of a mosaic of staggering and elaborate beauty. It is with this acceptance that we offer our memories, the fragmentary mosaic of our perspective, to take a step back and remember the kaleidoscopic vibrancy of Emma.

“She was the first person to speak to me and get to know me at New Practice, easing my nervousness. I think that says a lot about her personality, how she always made people feel included. I also just think her smile was great, every single photo she's in she always has a big beamer over her face.”

“When she first joined the practice I took her name down in our systems as Emma Newman; she later very gently pulled me aside and asked if I could change it all to Emma Burke Newman. When I asked her why, she said it was as a mark of respect to her mother; she wanted to have both her mother’s and father’s name with her each day.”

“I remember being struck by the joyous strength in her own resolve over a pint one day; I asked her about her decision to study architecture, and despite naysaying from those suggesting it was too long of a degree, she was so confident in making the choice and knowing it brought her joy. She helped me understand that joy isn’t just something neutral that you have or you don’t - it can be enacted, you can bring it to life for yourself.”

Feeling the gap that she has left, being able to describe it, to define it seems impossible. However, when we think of the work we do, and when we hear from others how much she enjoyed her time with us, it seems so clear now how effortlessly vital she was to our shared joy and passions as a team. That she offers us her continued joy through colour, truly is the greatest gift – she’s now in all that we do. She’s in the mustard and teal that we just can’t help ourselves from specifying for paint emulsions. She’s in the hot pink of our characteristically camp hi-vis site equipment. She’s in the orange of the sunflowers adorning Becca’s jacket hanging on the back of the store cupboard’s door, and in the red of the Barra’s Markets gates standing a block over from the bright yellow door of our office. But she’s not just here, in our work; she’s in everything. We can look to the abundant late spring foliage of the trees in Glasgow Green, heralding summer’s joyous times. We can look to the gold of the sun, to the blue sky of day, and to the pin pricks of aqua and orange light thrown across the inky field of night. We can look down to the muddy signatures of nature, coating tyres and shoes after a long day conversing with wild ground, and to the effervescing copper of a full pint at its end. With these memories, these flares of colour, any time we seek her presence, we need now just open our eyes.

“When she would walk into the office with a beaming smile, Emma radiated self assuredness. She gave me permission to be myself at work, to be goofy and natural. Snacks and giggles and drawing little people just for the fun of laughing at them together. She was kind and cool and full of life – I cut my hair to look like hers!”

“She struck me as someone with a type of quiet confidence, unusual for someone of her age, that’s both reassuring and calming. I was impressed with her foresight to do her architecture degree part time, keeping a foot in industry for additional learning and perspective. It’s the type of decision that you can only make if you don’t view life as a progressive ladder to ascend as fast as possible.“

“Emma and I more or less had the same top three favourite pubs in North London. We actually talked about pubs a lot, we also talked about where we watched women’s football, and the feta and honey pastries from the Dusty Knuckle on Green Lanes. It was pretty surprising that we didn’t bump into each other in London when she lived here – it seemed like we were always in the same places at the same times. I don’t have memories with Emma in those places, as we didn’t get around to going to any of our favourite pubs together, but it’s nice that all of my favourite places in North London remind me of Emma now.”

“The first time I met Emma I instinctively just hugged her, as I would do with a friend. I then realised, that’s odd, I don’t usually go about hugging my colleagues, but it just felt the right thing to do. It just shows how approachable and trustworthy she was. I also remember her New Year’s resolution was just to read more music magazines. I found it so cool that she was always pushing herself to learn new things, and for the pleasure she took in learning.”

“Outside of work, Emma and I would run into each other more than usual. Frequently enough that on the last few occasions we would simply approach each other grinning, with no words of surprise necessary. She was almost always with her bike, en route somewhere new and exciting. Emma’s awe for exploring her new city was contagious, and her go-getter attitude is something I continue to be inspired by.”

“On return from parental leave, I was looking forward to meeting and getting to know Emma. As photos started coming in from events, I remember thinking how tall she was, and how long her legs were. A total surprise when you’ve only seen someone’s head and shoulders online. That was the start of me building a picture of Emma that was filled in over the next few months with a great laugh, her intelligence and her curiosity for the world, and of course long legs and a wicked smile.” info@mcginlaybell.com

Stage Leader

Kirsty Lees

Co-Pilot

Andy Summers

Tutors

Nick Walker

Sonia Browse

Isabel Deakin

Robert Mantho

Rory Corr

Stage 4, is, and always has been concerned with the relationships between architecture and the city; engaging students in a dialogue with the city of Glasgow to explore urban reconstructions in the form of housing and urban interventions in the form of public buildings. This offers an opportunity to develop responses to the city that range in scale from the restructuring of an urban quarter to the impact of the individual building.

The relationship of domesticity, labour, and urban form has framed Stage 4’s investigations in recent years, proving to be a particularly prescient theme as we navigated our relationship with the domestic realm and working habits during Covid. Academic session 2021/22 saw restrictions to our daily lives and working environments gradually ease, and Stage 4 challenged the emerging landscape of hybridity and its influence on domesticity and labour.