UNIFORM NOVEMBER

Articles

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The founder of UNIFORM NOVEMBER, Frazer Macdonald Hay, specialises in working with the difficult

memories and places that will serve and enhance social cohesion and peacebuilding efforts.

(Contact: Frazer or call +44 7985 591805)

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He has spent years assessing and improving confrontational conditions in Iraq, South East Asia, Europe and the UK.

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Having spent three years in the Royal Airforce and a further six years in the Fire and Rescue Service, Frazer learned valuable lessons in methods of collaboration, project assessment and risk mitigation, team and individual confidence building, and has continued his passion for working with people throughout his career.

His work in architecture and design has spanned the design and construction of the Scottish Parliament building, during his time with EMBT RMJM Architects and spread across into academia, including his tenure as Founding Director of Glasgow School of Art Singapore.

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Frazer has worked across the world including on peacebuilding initiatives in Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Northern Ireland, and various countries in Africa; as a lecturer in universities in Norway, Scotland, England, Malaysia, The Netherlands, and India; and Co-creation projects addressing Climate Change flood risk mitigation in Mexico.

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Frazer has worked with clients such as the UN in Iraq addressing Housing Land and Property (HLP) issues (Report) and has recently completed a

contract funded by the Japanese Government and facilitated by IOM, to conduct field assessment, develop programming and provide training for IOM staff on appropriate memorialization initiatives that support trauma recovery, open dialogue about past events, and promote social cohesion in areas that have experienced conflict, grave human rights abuses and displacement (report).

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United Nations, The HALO Trust, ICCROM and small NGOs like the Island Foundation The University of Edinburgh, St Andrews University, British Chamber of Commerce Singapore The Substation, The British Council, Orkney Council,  North Berwick Harbour Trust,  Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp, Belgium), OSLO National Academy of the Arts (Norway) and Macalla Farm (Ireland), Skanska, Curry&Brown, Whale Arts Centre, Napier University and Duddingston House 

Frazer's  qualifications  are a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies from St Andrews University, a Masters in Architectural Conservation from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland where he has returned to read  for a PhD at the School of Politics and International Relations. Frazer is a member of The Scottish Parliament: CROSS PARTY GROUP on ARCHITECTURE and the BUILT ENVIRONMENT (CPG) and is involved in developing socio-economic projects that centre around the re-use of buildings in the UK.

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Certs: Advanced Security in the Field (UNDSS 2017), Mediation (2019), Handling difficult Colleagues and Clients (2013), South East Asia Contemporary Culture(2012) and PGCERT Higher Education (2005)

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Frazer's latest commission is to design and oversee construction of a local urban park project in Mosul’s urban West (Old Town). The project is a collaboration between The Halo Trust, UNMAS and Al-Ghad and aims to address ‘Explosive Hazard Risk Mitigation and Risk Education to change the behaviour of the affected population affected by Explosive Hazards in Mosul Old City'.

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       UNIFORM NOVEMBER is a facility that offers:

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• The design of peace-building interventions using the built environment and everyday memories of violence as a key component 

• Workshops on how the built environment imbued with memories of violence have a role in peace-building and social cohesion

• Workshops on how buildings might be perceived as ex-combatants

• Strategies of collaboration, connection and co-creating between stakeholders 

• The Mapping of everyday buildings with a troubling past, acknowledging places that have social importance or cultural significance - developing ‘fabrics of place’ which are important locally and within a wider context of nation-building and social cohesion 

• Analysis of contextual social dynamics and identifying areas of potential contention or post conflict flash points

• Methods of memorialisation that purposely avoids blame or the positioning of 'victim versus perpetrator' rather focusing on the context in which violence surfaced and how to avoid it in the future.

• Analysis of community conditions and explain the potential of networked people

• Workshops on Smart City methods of mitigating risk of violence and Climate change emergencies  

• Workshops in 'Design Thinking' creative problem solving 

• Work shops in Building Reuse 

• Post Conflict Research 

• Mediation

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Our UNIFORM NOVEMBER blog below is a knowledge transfer feed aimed at developing collaboration, dialogue and awareness...  

““whatever is true for space and time, this much is true for place: we are immersed in it and could not do without it. To be at all - to exist in any way – is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place”.

"No one therefor  can conceive anything, but they must conceive it in some place”.