Via a somewhat circuitous route, Trish Emmett is today regarded as one of Durban’s specialists in the restoration of heritage buildings, many of them tragically frail by the time she gets the 911 call. ‘Others arrive in open-toed shoes, I always wear boots. There’ll be white ant, pigeon droppings, borer,’ she says, amused. ‘It’s lucky I’m not that heavy – I’ve fallen through floors and I tumbled down a flight of stairs when I was pregnant.’

Trish and Frank Emmett are Emmett:Emmett Architects, and although they’re no longer partners in life, they’ve been a complementary force in their practice for around 20 years. Each of them has a primary area of expertise, with Trish initiating and designing, and Frank implementing and managing the on-site work. Temporarily operating out of a building site that Trish wearily calls home, Emmett:Emmett Architects are poised to step into the new offices they’ve designed and are building in Windermere Road, Morningside.

As a youngster, Trish had no plans to do architecture, although, she admits, she had ‘always loved design, but more fashion design’. She thinks again: ‘Actually, I wanted to do medicine, but my parents wouldn’t let me leave home.’ A smile… ‘Well, it wasn’t like today, was it? And medicine wasn’t an option here in Durban.’ To the dismay of her father, Trish settled on architecture, promising to test it out for a month, and then, in all likelihood, shift to a B.Com. That didn’t happen.

Trish made architecture her career and, not content with tackling one of the most challenging degree courses around, she spiced hers up with a few more complications. She married in her third year at the age of 21, and was expecting her first baby in her final year. Needless to say, her practical year was a consummate juggling act.

But whatever the challenges, she considers herself to have been immensely fortunate. ‘I studied for three years under Danie Theron, did my prac. year for Danie and Hans Hallen at Hallen Theron and Partners Inc., and continued to work for them for 10 years.’ Trish won’t ever underestimate the value of an apprenticeship such as that, and she shakes her head disbelievingly at the little gems she learned from these supreme professionals, which have stuck in her head forever, ‘like designing a room from the ceiling down’, she grins. Including herself in the comment, she adds: ‘I don’t think young architects realise how little they know, and how vital it is to work with the best in order to get a good grounding.’ Today, the practice makes it part of their mission to mentor previously disadvantaged young architects.

Trish and Frank opened Emmett:Emmett Architects when she was pregnant with her last child. (In conversation she often links significant phases in her working life to major events relating to her children: ‘In between babies, I taught architecture on and off at the University of Natal.’) Clearly, multitasking was a way of life, and it’s obviously a key factor as to how and why she became so entrenched in committee work over the past years for the architectural community.

Trish was young when elected Chairman of the Heritage Committee: ‘I was known for sticking my neck out and trying to save old buildings. Not sure how it came about… It was the strangest thing, really. In final year we had a course on conservation, and I did landscape conservation – the Umgeni River – for which I received the Certificate of Merit. How that translated into buildings, I have no idea.’ But it did. The reputation she built up catapulted her on to the committee of the KwaZulu-Natal Institute of Architects, where – through a series of reshuffles among the vice-presidents – she swiftly, stressfully found herself in the hot seat. Given how draining this role can be on the resources of a small architectural practice, she consoled herself with the thought she’d have support on the committee from an individual from a large practice. ‘I was very mindful of what it would do to Emmett:Emmett, it’s a huge job… then the person I was relying on to share the load pulled out and I was solo.’ It begs the question, Why take it on, but Trish says that by then her life was in a state of flux, her children were leaving home, and she thought, ‘OK, I’ll give it two years.’

Two became four. She was elected on to the national committee, and then took on the presidency (from 1999 to 2004). She laughs, ‘I never set out to do any of that.’

Trish has travelled extensively, and was invited to join the council of the Africa Union of Architects for the southern region of Africa. More travel.

‘It’s a group of about 25 people – five per region – tasked with investigating the upliftment of architects in Africa.’ Trish was the first South African since 1987 to be voted on the council of the International Union of Architects (IUA), for Region V Africa – more travelling – and she is one of only five architects from Africa on that council. From Jo’burg to Jerusalem, Arusha to Alexandria, she’s been there, delivered the paper.

Trish’s work with heritage buildings involves an enormous amount of research. As she says of their current work on Durban’s City Hall: ‘We’ve been brought in as specialist consultants for the refurbishment of the external façade. I’ve even been on a stone course in Verona!’ Emmett:Emmett’s first South African Institute of Architects Conservation Award was for Quarters Hotel in 1997, the acclaimed boutique hotel in Florida Road. When Trish was called on site by owner Robert Maingard, the four buildings were so worn out it wasn’t possible to access them safely.

Two years later, the practice won another for Stratford Sheds at the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Programme, swiftly followed in 2001 by a KwaZulu-Natal Institute for Architecture Conservation Award for Plaisir du Jardin in Florida Road. They’ve received merit awards for Howard College Law Library at the University of Natal, and Dockpoint at the Point Waterfront, the latter also winning a South African Institute of Architects Merit Award. The practice has also won 14 City of Durban Conservation Awards.

Trish is the first to acknowledge the influence on her work of Australian architect Glen Murcutt, and his philosophy of ‘touch the earth lightly’, his passion for sustainability and his, well, ‘lozenges’, a design concept that Trish uses extensively and that can roughly be translated as ‘long, skinny spaces’. Trish used lozenges during Emmett:Emmett’s recently completed work on the new SPCA headquarters in Springfield Industrial Park. Lozenges, she says, are ‘about strong axes and the vistas through them – you can just clip on more lozenges as and when you need them’.

Trish describes the primary focus of Emmett:Emmett as ‘finding appropriate African design solutions, and providing sensitive solutions to new work in historic settings’. The practice sees itself at the forefront of current policies regarding conservation, and this focus is underscored by their involvement at an international level.

For Trish, raising the consciousness of African, particularly South African, architecture is paramount, and she’s determined to play a meaningful role in effecting change in the perception of architecture in South Africa.So for now, her focus is on securing the next IUA conference for Durban. ‘We’re up against Singapore,’ she says, ‘but it’s their first bid, our second, and we’re the favourites.’ She’s off to Turin – accompanied by key SA players, movers and shakers – and by the time you read this, she’ll know the outcome.

For Trish, winning the bid would be a major personal coup and, ultimately, it would represent the pinnacle of the work she’s put into raising the bar of South and southern African architecture.

Then she could hand over the reins – or at least some of them – and submerge herself in Emmett:Emmett.