Personal space: Finn Scott
Finn Scott.
Finn is looking forward to camping in the family’s canvas tent over summer.
Finn spent time sailing and holidaying in the Hauraki Gulf.
Finn spent time sailing and holidaying in the Hauraki Gulf.
Oscar Niemeyer’s Palácio Itamaraty in Brasilia, Brazil.
Oscar Niemeyer’s Edifício Copan in São Paulo, Brazil.
Finn says that he has always loved the illustrations in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.
Finn Scott is a senior associate at Bossley Architects. Here, he shares some of his favourite architectural projects, what he’s reading and eating and his plans for summer.
Interior: What are you working on at the moment?
Finn Scott (FS): At work, there are some fantastic projects on the boil, including a sculptural white concrete house. Outside of work, I have a neat little ‘upcycling’ project where we are creating a family home on the west coast of Auckland. With a volatile housing market and high building costs, we had to get a bit creative. So, we’ve bought a couple of 60’s state houses for a song and linked them together and punched a few extra holes in and out. It’s pretty cool seeing your house turn up on the back of a truck in the middle of the night.
Interior: Is there an architectural style that inspires you?
FS: No, not any ‘style’ in particular, but I did spend some time in Brazil several years back and it had a real impact on me. Maybe not so much at the time but more so over the years as I’ve had time to reflect on the architecture I saw – mainly the concrete buildings by the likes of Paulo Mendes de Rocha, Oscar Niemeyer and Alvaro Siza.
Interior: What would be your dream architectural project?
FS: I would love to one day work on a bridge. They can be such neat structures and have the potential to be such honest and pure expressions of function and form.
Interior: Have you read any good books lately?
FS: To be honest, I’m reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar on repeat most nights to my 4-year-old daughter. Come summer and a bit of spare time I’ve got a couple on standby ready to get stuck into: one is an old classic and a re-read from childhood – Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The drawings have always fascinated me.
Interior: What are you eating?
FS: I have a real soft spot for dumplings. I was fortunate to spend a couple of weeks teaching in China not long ago, where we had a hands-on and hands-down best dumpling-making lesson ever. I think I ate dumplings every day for two weeks. Homemade is the best if you have the patience.
Interior: Where will you be relaxing over the summer break?
FS: Hopefully bobbing around somewhere offshore and exploring Northland’s beautiful coastline or setting up camp somewhere remote with the family in our canvas tent.
This article first appeared in Interior magazine.
