Simon Fraser is a Director at FBM Architects and is a Trustee and Treasurer for the University Design Forum.

Who are you and what do you do

I am the one remaining founding director at FBM I am involved in all projects in the office.

What is your proudest accomplishment

Re-visiting a housing scheme I worked on many years ago in a new town setting and finding that it has matured into a rich community with landscape and play spaces all looking good, offering great homes and a good place to live.

What is your favourite thing about your career

I see architecture as a social science that provides spatial form for activities to take place. It is an opportunity to contribute substantially to the quality of people's lives. It is always a great experience to walk through the door of a building that lifts the spirits.

Describe the University Design Forum in one sentence

It offers access to some great buildings that are otherwise closed to the public, and it also provides a conference that is both challenging and informative.

What is your contribution to University Design Forum

FBM are Treasurers for the University Design Forum

What does a good HE building mean to you

A place of high activity, inviting, with beautiful spaces that are clear and easy to understand, with low energy consumption that connects well with its surroundings.

One thing about you that will surprise people

I like hand drawing and have been attending life drawing classes for many years, but unfortunately I haven't improved much.

What is your favourite piece of design?

I have visited many buildings over the years that have left a lasting impression. I visited the Pantheon in Rome again after many years, when University Design Forum had a Rome study tour, and it still blew me away. Moving from the bright sunlight in the piazza to the dark interior with its coffered ceiling dome with a single point of light, built 2000 years ago, is still an experience that is difficult to beat. It may be matched only by Gunnar Asplund's two masterpieces in Stockholm. The Public Library and Woodland Cemetery. Both very different, both powerful and atmospheric. The Public Library has the opposite experience of the Pantheon. You enter in darkness and move up a staircase to a brightly lit, beautiful reading room. To some extent reflecting the process of education moving from darkness to light. I also studied De Carlo's Urbino University building when I was at university, and only recently visited. It lived up to my expectations: a beautiful hillside campus.

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