Architectural Digest looks at 'Deathly Hallows' set design and construction

In a brilliant article inside Architectural Digest, Stuart Craig gives an exclusive look at the sets used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Parts 1 and 2 films.

Twelve significant set design elements were looked at by the magazine in complete detail, and we found the reasons and methods used by production designer, Stuart Craig, to be completely ingenious.

On Shell Cottage:

The seventh 'Harry Potter' movie ends on the beach outside Bill and Fleur Weasley's Shell Cottage, and the new film gives a look at the house itself. 'I try to find a logic for whatever the set is and somehow I felt it was wrong for [Shell Cottage] to be too whimsical, too fanciful,' says production designer Stuart Craig. 'So this cottage has a logic. If you really wanted to build a house on the beach, what would you do? Well, you would use local materials. And the local materials would be either rocks or seashells. The walls are huge oyster shells and the roof is made of big scallop shells. You can see how scallop shells can lend themselves to overlapping and shedding water. I was kind of pleased with the logic underlying the structure that we had found there."

Additional set designs:

• Gringotts Wizarding Bank
• Gringotts concept drawing
• Underground passage to Gringotts vaults concept drawing
• Dragon arena outside Lestrange vault concept drawing
• Inside Lestrange vault concept drawing
• Gringotts dragon escape concept drawing
• Honeydukes Sweetshop
• Hogwarts Boathouse
• Dumbledore's Office
• Hogwarts Entrance Hall
• Hogwarts Battlement

These designs by Stuart Craig are just another reason he should have a great shot at winning an Oscar at the Academy Awards next month.