'Architecture as Provider Instead of Shelter': Matter Design's Brandon Clifford Discusses Architecture and Speculative Design as a Catalyst for Social Good

2021-04-14T08:25:00-04:00

Learning how a design studio begins its journey into professional practice is an eye-opening experience. For Matter Design, they started with a mission to build projects they designed themselves. While this response may seem simple in its approach, they explain, "we were much more interested in the means, the methods, and communication between design and materials." Yet, four years after our Studio Snapshot interview with co-founders Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee, the practice has grown into a catalyst for bridging architecture, speculative design, and interdisciplinary social missions.

Archinect re-connected with Clifford to discuss recessions, running a speculative design studio, and how the firm's latest project AquíAquí is more than just a public space project. Clifford shared, "I can say that we have built Matter Design on a series of speculative built works that serve as individual challenges to default practice." In response to the development of AquíAquí, he explains, "we t...

Trying Something New with Matter Design

2017-04-10T09:00:00-04:00

This week on, Small Studio Snapshots, we talk with Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee of Matter Design - an interdisciplinary studio founded in 2008. Recent finalists of the 2017 AZ Awards, the duo discuss their love of taking on experimental projects, merging the design and making process, and even give us a little background on the history of the architecture studio.

Archinect - Features

'Architecture as Provider Instead of Shelter'​: Matter Design's Brandon Clifford Discusses Architecture and Speculative Design as a Catalyst for Social Good

Trying Something New with Matter Design

'Architecture as Provider Instead of Shelter': Matter Design's Brandon Clifford Discusses Architecture and Speculative Design as a Catalyst for Social Good