Fraser Davie, Associate at Keppie Design, began his career after being inspired by family influence and an unwavering love for design. His portfolio is a testament to his commitment to community impact and architectural rejuvenation. In this exclusive Q&A blog, we delve into Fraser's architectural journey, his remarkable career milestones, community-centric philosophy and his take on emerging industry trends and challenges.
Q. Let’s begin at the start of your career. How did you get into the world of architecture?
A: My path into architecture has been heavily influenced by family. My grandad was an architect and a great early inspiration, although he sadly passed away before I was able to tell him that I wanted to follow in his footsteps which is a great regret. My father also worked for Keppie, not as an architect but as a town planner, so I was exposed to the world of architecture and our studio from an early age. With these connections in mind, I have always been quite self-conscious and keen to carve out my own career in a subject area that I was really interested in.
Like many, my passion for art and design also played a significant role in my choice to pursue architecture. I was drawn to the idea of a technical but creative career where I could create design proposals, develop technical drawings and ultimately see them coming to life on the construction site. My university years at Dundee provided a great platform to develop conceptual and communication skills, with a good practical foundation gained during the height of the financial crash in 2007 / 2008, at a largely unpaid but invaluable year-long placement. At the time it felt like a small compromise for invaluable work experience during a period of time where there were very few positions available. This placement and following year back at university cemented my passion to pursue architecture as my career.
Q: What are your design inspirations?
A: Inspiration comes from many, many architectural sources and they are rarely the same on projects depending on a number of factors. Two notable but perhaps surprising architectural choices stand out along the way though.
During my honours year at University, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels was becoming more prominent and I was quite taken by his use of iconic, bold diagrams in conjunction with his incredibly passionate storytelling. I found myself becoming transfixed with what he was saying, almost mesmerised. Whether or not I was keen on the final outcome, I found myself nodding at each step which was quite powerful. In turn, Bjarke has certainly been a big influence but in a less conventional manner, and I have certainly tried to replicate certain characteristics through the use of clear conceptual narratives which help to convey compelling proposals to clients, planners and contractors alike.
Another early influence was the Italian architect Carlos Scarpa, known for his intricately layered and tectonic detailing. His unique approach celebrated the individual components within a structure, telling the story of how each and every nut and bolt plays an important, and often underappreciated role in the final picture. I find his work incredibly beautiful in a really honest, exposed and intensely technical manner. It certainly gave me an early education in the analysis and understanding of detail design. In a strange twist, I’m more drawn towards a minimalist approach these days, where details are made to work incredibly hard behind the scenes, in an effort to make something look very simple and calming.
Fraser was part of the team that delivered the Ronald McDonald House, a ‘home from home’, to provide shelter and comfort to the families of children being treated at the adjacent Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
Q: Can you share a standout project you’ve worked on?
A: I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with so many wonderful clients and project types, but an early one that immediately comes to mind is Ronald McDonald House. This thirty-bed ‘home from home’ for the families of sick children was an incredibly humbling project to be a part of and almost brought me to tears one evening when I visited in the evening post-completion. It is generally quieter during the day while families visit the adjacent Royal Hospital for Children, but I found that in the evening there is a quiet buzz of activity, with families being able to go around their daily routines: cooking, washing clothes, and often caring for one another. It all sounds very normal, but that was exactly what the charity were trying to achieve. In between the pain and distress, there are elements of comfort to be found in routine and familiarity. This also extended to the architecture itself where we tried to create a calming, and welcoming environment - something very vernacular in appearance and of domestic scale, yet using traditional materials in a modern manner.
Q: Are there any other projects that have been career highlights so far?
A: 16 Church Street in Dumbarton Town Centre was another project that stands out. West Dunbartonshire Council were looking to create an exemplar new office which would facilitate the move of 500 staff, and associated public services, back into Dumbarton Town centre from the outskirts of town. This was in an effort to boost the local economy and help to rejuvenate the failing high street, whilst saving William Leiper’s A Listed Academy Building which was in desperate need of repair.
Having visited the existing cellular Garshake offices we felt that there was an opportunity to create more open-planned, shared, collaborative, and social spaces, where departments could work better together or interact in ways which weren’t possible, or at least intuitive before. This was supported by the executives of West Dunbartonshire Council who lead by example, giving up their private office space in an effort to champion and lead this change in working style.
It was also a highly sustainable building, naturally ventilated and full of natural daylight. Wellness was key, providing lots of breakout spaces, informal meeting spaces and telephone booths. It’s fair to say that they were well equipped to respond to post-covid office trends. The exposed concrete frame helped to regulate building temperature, limiting heating and cooling demand, in conjunction with the BMS system which automatically opens / closes windows, and exhaust louvres in the central atrium to further regulate heat and air quality levels. Other low carbon heat sources provide top ups, where passive means require a boost.
Externally, the office extension sensitively complements that of the existing Academy Building façade, which underwent a meticulous consolidation and repair scheme, with Historic Environment Scotland contributing £500k funding towards the works, and ultimately recognising the project as a sensitive and well-executed example of conservation-led urban regeneration. For me this is the single most important aspect of the project, the brave move by the council to take on the risk of saving the A listed Academy building, in the knowledge that there might be some bumps along the way, but in turn boosting the high street and ultimately becoming a catalyst for further regeneration which has happened since. As beautiful as single pieces of architecture can be, and what we strive to create, the wider regeneration impact is where I feel that we can collectively make a positive difference on communities and their experience.
16 Church Street was a project to bring West Dunbartonshire Council's offices back to the city centre, creating a sustainable and healthy work environment while also rejuvenated a listed building. Photos by Jim Stephenson.
Q: So, you definitely have a big interest in regeneration and the impact of architecture and masterplanning on communities. Can you expand on the important impact architecture has on restoring communities?
A: Regeneration is a key aspect of thriving communities. As you can see from 16 Church Street, regeneration can completely revive an area, giving them a new lease of life. And it's not just about the buildings but the spaces in between, creating welcoming environments full of amenity, which in turn can attract further investment and help to improve the quality and safety of our neighbourhoods. Mixed-use developments are also crucial, fostering an environment where residential and commercial areas coexist, and feed off of one another. We are working on a number of ever-present Build to Rent schemes, and I am personally involved in our Ocean Terminal proposal where we are looking to consolidate, repair and reimagine the existing mall, leaving a sustainable mixed use city hub, giving it a future and challenging the concept of what is a “mall”. In turn we are also creating a new mixed tenure development site to house a vibrant new community – An incredible new water-fronting amenity will be opened up to the public for the first time, along with a new public view of the beautiful Royal Yacht Britannia. We envisage that these new public spaces will become vital to the Leith community, and hope that there could even be opportunity to host Fringe events or similar in the future, further facilitated by the arrival of the newly opened and adjacent tram stop.
Q: Are there any trends or topics that you find particularly relevant or exciting at the moment?
A: At Keppie specifically, we’re evolving in terms of social output, especially when it comes to flexible work hours and staff wellbeing. We're developing a comprehensive strategy for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), and taking our time to do it right in order to ensure that it has more meaningful impact and ability to help to educate our clients and peers.
Health and wellbeing has been central to our work for a long time but projects like the Net Zero new Monklands Replacement Hospital is an inspiring example. We're creating meaningful spaces with empathy, aiming to transform necessary clinical, and perhaps often institutional settings into more comforting, and hopeful atmospheres.
The design concept for Ocean Terminal, a project to repair and reimagine a sustainable mixed use city hub.
Q: Now we’re going to ask a few topical questions based on current trends, legislation and industry-wide challenges. Firstly, how does Keppie approach changes in legislation, such as the Future Homes Standard?
A: Keppie's approach to legislative changes is structured, ensuring that the technical aspects and design align with ever evolving regulations. We have a technical team who constantly review changes, assess how it may impact the team internally as well as clients, and roll out any necessary actions to projects. Underpinning all of this are robust technical review and checking procedures in order to maintain high-quality standards. Internally and externally, communication is key with these changes to ensure that everyone is aware and understands any subsequent challenges that can be collectively worked through.
Q: So, onto skills shortages, another area that is affecting the industry. Are you finding skills shortages are having an impact on any of your projects?
A: The architecture industry is certainly experiencing staffing shortages across the board, making it challenging to secure the right talent, especially in the senior architect or technician roles. I’m finding that more and more architects are exploring other sectors or in-house roles often offered by construction firms, Universities, NHS which offer design management roles. Likewise, renewables are a rapidly growing sector which seems to be attracting architects towards an industry which is here to stay, and keep growing.
Q: Finally, the rise of artificial intelligence has been a topical subject for a while now. Do you see a helpful place for AI in architecture?
A: AI certainly has a role to play in architecture. While it won't replace human creativity and empathy, I feel that it could positively contribute towards efficiency and at initial design and feasibility stages to assist with generating massing options in response to a set of constraints including daylighting, overshadowing, wind, density, green space requirements and other important factors. It’s certainly going to be exciting to see how this sector evolves in the future and is seeing exponential growth currently.
