Located within an eclectic community in the north end of Halifax, Nova Scotia is a self-commissioned mixed use project by Susan Fitzgerald Architecture and her builder partner Brainard Fitzgerald. Neighbours include: the city crematorium, a recycling depot, a coffee roaster and cafe, a car dealership, an automobile repair shop, condominiums and the sparse remnants of row-housing from the early 1900s. Within the 25’ x 100’ lot, this project contributes to the rich character of this community where the converging conditions of affordable land, rapid growth and light industry suggest an uncertain future.
Advocating ways to maintain and enrich the diversity in the neighbourhood, this project increases density, community and livability. Consisting of three separate units, each with entrances at grade, the program for the project includes: an office space for an architecture and contractor firm with equipment storage; a dwelling for a family of four with a dog and two cats; and a two-storey live/work rental studio apartment. Programmatic and spatial flexibility enables the commercial and residential spaces to contract or expand into one another based upon the viability of the business, and ever changing family circumstances as children mature and parents age.
Landscaped spaces are integrated throughout the whole project to offer respite within the city and support the cultivation of vegetables and flowers.