Matthew Blunderfield
- Associate Lecturer / ADS1 Studio Tutor
- Architecture MA Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2)
Matthew is a photographer and host of the podcast Scaffold. He teaches at the Kingston School of Art and RCA, and is a producer at The Architecture Foundation.
Matthew’s photography foregrounds architecture’s relation to the habitual, seeking a representation of the built environment that reveals the exotic within the arena of daily life.
Scaffold features interviews with emerging and established voices in the fields of architecture, art and design. It is supported by the Architecture Foundation and has been celebrated by Dezeen as one of the “best pieces of new architectural media.”
At the RCA, in collaboration with Andrea Zanderigo, Matthew teaches ADS1 – an MA Architecture studio focused on the adaptive reuse of 1980’s shopping malls and office buildings.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Matthew studied English Literature at the University of British Columbia and Architecture at the University of Toronto, before completing his RIBA Part III qualification from the Bartlett, UCL. He lives in London.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Gallery
More information
Research interests
Matthew’s approach to teaching asserts lived experience as architecture’s organising principle, with an interest in the role architects play in both reinforcing and reinventing normality through the production of everyday environments.
Practice
Prior to joining the Architecture Foundation as a Producer in 2021, Matthew worked at Henley Halebrown, most recently as project architect on De Beauvoir Estate – a large-scale, mixed tenure housing regeneration project in collaboration with Stephen Taylor architects. In London he previously worked at David Kohn architects, where he was project lead on the preplanning stages of a significant new student housing project for New College in Oxford, and at Waugh Thistleton architects, where he worked on the masterplanning and design of a new district for creative industries on Sugar House Island, Stratford.
Prior to completing his M.Arch at the University of Toronto, he worked at celebrated practices in Toronto and Chengdu.
Current and recent projects
Scaffold, 2018 - present
An ongoing interview project featuring long-form conversations with architects, artists and designers, in collaboration with the Architecture Foundation.
Power & Public Space, 2022
A podcast series in collaboration with the Architecture Foundation and Drawing Matter currently in production, which draws from architectural historians, academics, practitioners and artists to frame a conversation on public space for a new generation of architects.
Housing Histories, 2022
An oral history project in collaboration with the Architecture Foundation recording the daily life of a housing estate in London currently slated for redevelopment.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Publications
Blunderfield, M. and Torzo, F. (2021). Scaffold Interview 35. In: Among Quiet Things. Rome: Thymos Books., pp 14-72.
Hirsch, A. & Gabrielian, A. (2016). Grounding Diaspora. Journal of Architectural Education 70:1, 116-131.
Blunderfield, M. and Lamarre, R. (2015) Full Disclosure: An Interview on Jaakko Pallasvuo. In: Lamarre, R. Full Disclosure. London, Arcadia Missa., pp 5-25.