A Building Speaks Before Demolition
In conversation with a building scheduled for demolition ..... The manuscript I have recently completed, Adaptive Reuse: Conflict, Climate and Conservation / What Buildings Know , is structured as a conversation. Each chapter opens with the voice of a building facing demolition. It reflects on its condition, its memories, and its uncertainty about what comes next. These openings are not decorative. They frame the themes that follow, adaptive reuse, conflict, climate, conserva
What Buildings Know & Why It Matters Now
I have recently completed a manuscript exploring adaptive reuse, not simply as an architectural method, but as a way of thinking about how we live, remember, and change. At its core, the book asks a simple question: What happens if we stop treating buildings as objects to be replaced, and start understanding them as things to be read? Over time, that question became something else entirely. It became clear that adaptive reuse is not only about buildings. It is about how we re
Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan: What Post-War Cities Must Learn About Memory
Ukrainian / Arabic Text Rebuilding After War: What Buildings Remember If you are planning the reconstruction of Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Syria (or any city emerging from war) there is a question that rarely appears in engineering briefs, donor frameworks, or architectural masterplans: What do the buildings remember? After conflict, the world mobilises to rebuild walls, roads, schools, and monuments. We measure recovery in square metres restored and skylines repaired. Yet in eve
Why Peace & Conflict Skills Matter in Everyday UK Life
For most of my working life, I have operated at the intersection of people, place, memory, and conflict . I have worked in cities rebuilding after war; in neighbourhoods negotiating tense identities; in institutions grappling with histories they found difficult to acknowledge; and in communities looking for ways to reconnect after years of silence or division. Through all of this, one insight has stayed with me: Conflict does not begin with violence, and peace does not begin
What the Walled Off Hotel Reveals About Our Liquid Times
Banksy, Bauman, Sontag and the Architecture of Fear by Frazer Macdonald Hay In Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty, Zygmunt Bauman describes a world slipping from solid certainties into fluid insecurities, a world where social bonds thin, trust evaporates, and fear becomes a political resource more valuable than truth. We inhabit, he argues, an age shaped by negative globalisation: a system that grants radical freedom of movement to some while confining others beh
The Theatre of Silence
Rebuilding Mariupol’s Drama Theatre as an Act of Erasure by Frazer Macdonald Hay, Uniform November In March 2022, Russia bombed the Mariupol Drama Theatre, a building clearly labelled with the word “CHILDREN” (“ДЕТИ”) in enormous white letters visible from the sky. Hundreds of civilians were sheltering inside. According to investigations by the Associated Press , at least 600 people were killed. It was one of the deadliest single attacks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Uk
Lumbini: Where Peace Begins with Place
by Frazer Macdonald Hay Introduction I was deeply grateful to the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund ( CPF ) and ICOMOS for the opportunity to contribute to the ICOMOS Annual General Assembly and Scientific Symposium 2025 in Lumbini, Nepal , a place whose serenity conceals a profound lesson about the relationship between peace, place, and humanity. It was a privilege to share my work on peacebuilding through place alongside heritage professionals, scholars, and p
Connected by Place, Powered by People: The NoDE Approach
Written by #Frazermacdonaldhay In cities, towns, and rural areas across the world, communities are facing a shared crisis — not just of...
Upcoming Book Launch at UCL: Reconstruction as Violence in Assad’s Syria
I'm eagerly anticipating the upcoming book launch of Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria , scheduled for June 9, 2025, from 17:00...
Review: Rupturing Architecture by Sana Murrani
Review Frazer Macdonald Hay : Rupturing Architecture by Sana Murrani .....A Call to Reimagine Refuge (Arabic) I devoured this book. Sana...
