UNIFORM NOVEMBER

Frazer Macdonald Hay

Founder, Uniform November

 

Frazer Macdonald Hay has spent more than two decades exploring one of the defining challenges of our time: how existing buildings can be adapted to support climate resilience, social cohesion and post-conflict recovery.

 

A simple proposition guides his work:

 

Those who understand people through place gain a deeper understanding of the world.

 

Those who understand place through people gain a glimpse of its future.

 

As an adaptive reuse specialist, educator, peacebuilding practitioner and writer, Frazer works across architecture, heritage, conflict and community engagement to understand how places shape people, and how people, in turn, shape the places they inherit.

 

Rather than approaching buildings as isolated objects, Frazer approaches them as relationships, between people and place, past and future, conflict and recovery, memory and possibility.

 

Through Uniform November, he combines consultancy, research, education, writing and long-form conversations to explore the role of buildings not simply as physical structures, but as participants in human life: carrying memory, identity, labour, conflict and possibility.

 

His work argues that adaptive reuse is far more than an architectural methodology. It is a way of thinking about continuity, stewardship and change in an age increasingly defined by climate pressures, social fragmentation and political uncertainty.

 

His belief is simple:

 

Before we change places, we must first learn to see them.

 

Learning Through Place

Frazer's professional journey has never followed a conventional architectural path. Originally trained in the adaptation and reuse of existing buildings, he later specialised in Architectural Conservation, developing an interdisciplinary practice dedicated to understanding how buildings can be intelligently transformed rather than replaced.

 

His work has taken him from contributing to the design and build of the new Scottish Parliament to post-conflict Iraq, from villages in Indonesia to communities rebuilding in Ukraine. Along the way he has collaborated with governments, universities, humanitarian organisations and local communities to explore how architecture can contribute to recovery, resilience and social cohesion.

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This combination of adaptive reuse, conservation, peacebuilding and field research has led to an interdisciplinary perspective that sees existing buildings not as problems to be solved, but as opportunities to better understand continuity, memory and change.

 

Working Where Change Happens

Over the past twenty years, Frazer has worked across conflict and post-conflict environments including Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, Jordan, Indonesia, Northern Ireland and throughout Europe.

 

His clients and collaborators include UNESCO, ICCROM, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the British Council, UN-Habitat, The HALO Trust, governments, municipalities, universities and civil society organisations.

 

Rather than focusing solely on monuments or iconic architecture, his work explores the role of ordinary buildings and everyday places (homes, schools, markets, streets, places of worship and civic spaces) as settings where memory, identity and social cohesion are continually negotiated.

 

His projects demonstrate how thoughtful engagement with the built environment can contribute to reconciliation, recovery and long-term resilience.

 

Conversations

Alongside consultancy and research, Frazer has developed a distinctive practice of long-form conversations with leaders, craftspeople, humanitarian practitioners, architects, artists, firefighters, veterans and communities working in some of the world's most challenging environments.

 

Recent conversations include interviews with Princess Dana Firas, Shoshana Stewart and Sir John Whittingdale, alongside local practitioners rebuilding lives and places in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq.

 

These conversations explore leadership, craftsmanship, memory, recovery and the enduring relationship between people and place. They form the basis of publications, educational programmes and public engagement that seek to broaden understanding beyond institutional reports and policy language.

 

Learning to See

Frazer is currently developing Learning to See, an interdisciplinary educational practice that brings together adaptive reuse, heritage, peacebuilding, climate resilience and community engagement.

 

Rather than teaching participants what to think about buildings, Learning to See encourages them to observe more carefully, ask better questions and understand how places influence the people who inhabit them.

 

Developed for universities, governments, NGOs, heritage organisations, creative industries and community leaders, the programme argues that the future will require not only better designers, but better observers.

 

Its philosophy is simple:

 

Learning to See.

 

Learning to Read.

 

Learning to Respond.

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Writing, Research and Public Engagement

Frazer writes extensively on adaptive reuse, peacebuilding, memory and post-conflict recovery through the Uniform November journal and national publications.

 

His current research explores the relationship between architecture, memory and violence, with work including a forthcoming Routledge book chapter examining everyday sites of violence in post-conflict Iraq.

 

He is also completing Adaptive Reuse: Conflict, Climate and Conservation – What Buildings Know, a new book that challenges conventional architectural writing by inviting buildings into the conversation as witnesses to human history, adaptation and change.

 

Across all of his writing, Frazer seeks to democratise architectural thinking, making conversations about buildings, memory and place accessible beyond professional audiences.

 

Advisory and Professional Roles

• Advisory Board Member, Scottish Peace Platform

• Large Grants Assessor, British Council – Cultural Protection Fund

• Member, Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group on Architecture and the Built Environment

• Member, Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group on International Development

 

His work continues through international consultancy, writing, teaching and strategic advisory roles that connect architecture, heritage and peacebuilding across diverse cultural and political contexts.

 

Current Focus

Frazer's current work centres on a single ambition:

 

To help people understand themselves through the places they create, inherit and change.

 

Whether advising governments, interviewing leaders, teaching students, writing books or working alongside communities recovering from conflict, he continues to explore one enduring question:

 

What do the places we create reveal about us?

And perhaps more importantly:

What kind of future are we building in return?

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A full professional CV is available on request.

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