Nature Study

Architect Fergus Scott mines the potential of every site to create something beautiful and unique. 

- Karen Mccartney

FERGUS SCOTT has a quiet intensity in the way he talks about his response to landscape and climate, refuge and outlook, and the ways of living that his clients have been able to embrace as a result.

For example, by allowing these considerations to drive the building form of his Southern House it enables his client to lie in her bed with a view of Brush Island or watch a southerly buster come in, knowing she is protected and the house is anchored firmly on its coastal site. Another operates their house as they would a sailing boat – amplifying the shifts in the climate through the day and the seasons.

“These clients were keen to have a relationship with nature through the experience of the house, by interacting and engaging with the place, not just looking at a view through a sealed portal,” says Scott.

Over time he has developed a firmly held philosophy that enables him to intuitively respond to the stories of a site, the challenges that have to be overcome and the advantages that can be exploited to achieve something enduring and meaningful.