Architectural mentor 6: MATT+FIONA

MATT+FIONA is a collective that empowers young people to be involved in the design of their built environment in three ways: build, learn and connect.

Describe who you are.
We are a social enterprise that supports children and young people to make more inclusive and representative places and spaces. We are a collective of architects and educators who believe in the power of platforming young people’s voices and bringing them to the conversation about the future of their neighbourhoods.

What is the aim of your organisation?
We believe every child should be able to see themselves reflected in the world they live in. In practice, this is about believing in the value of young people (and all people) shaping the places where they live, work and play. If they can do this in a hands-on way by physically building these spaces, then even better! We see our role as facilitating young people to design rather than us being co-designers.

Rubble Garden, a new public space in Colchester, which features bespoke furniture designed by local school children (photo: French + Tye)

Are you volunteer-led?
We work with a huge range of people from across the architecture sector who want to support young people in making their designs a reality. As well as volunteers sharing their knowledge and experience, we ensure these volunteer days are also a meaningful and educational experience for them. Keep an eye on our social media for any future call-outs for volunteers!

Do you partner with other organisations?
All our projects are collaborations, be it with clients, architecture practices or other organisations doing similar work to us. As a small social enterprise, our work is supported by our industry champions: architect Jestico + Whiles and engineer Buro Happold and the Happold Foundation. As well as supporting the practice financially, they provide us with pro-bono expertise on many of our projects. Members of their team also join us as volunteers, helping ensure our workshops are as meaningful as possible for the young people who take part in them.

MATT+FIONA working with local school children on a garden community youth engagement project (photo: MATT+FIONA)

What kind of programmes do you run and which has been the most successful?
All of our programmes are tailored to the needs of the group we are working with. They vary from one-off design workshops to multi-year youth engagement programmes to design-and-build projects. The throughline is always the same: giving children the tools they need to articulate their vision and supporting them to bring that vision to life. The most successful projects are those in which we trust that a client is taking young people and their ideas seriously, and there is true scope for collaboration beyond a tokenistic box-ticking exercise.

What has been your landmark achievement?
Recently, we worked with the GLA to integrate the voices of an invited audience of over 300 young Londoners into the updated London Plan. Soliciting the thoughts and ideas of so many young people about the city where they live felt like a real achievement. We are also proud that we are developing our own core programming after eight years of principally delivering commissioned services. These programmes, which we aim to pilot in the next 12 months, are funded by the Happold Foundation.

Models made by young people (photo: Luke O'Donovan)

What role are you filling that other outreach programmes aren’t?
We see our role as taking traditional co-design one step further and ensuring that young people can see their ideas through to the fabrication stage.

What are the biggest changes you would like to see in the industry?
Reforms to the planning process would be a good place to start: how could we all work to make the planning and delivery of new places more representative of the people who will be living in them?

What advice do you give your students who are thinking of pursuing a career in the built environment?
There are countless ways of shaping the world around you, and they don’t always come from working in traditional built-environment professions. An architecture degree can open doors and springboard you to so many things. As an education, it equips people with a huge amount of knowledge which can be applied in unexpected places.

Questions answered by George Pope, strategical development manager at MATT+FIONA