Meet the team
Matthew Barnett HowlanD
Matthew has recently completed the Cork House in Eton, in collaboration with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton (UCL). Cork House is a highly innovative project built with structural solid cork walls and roof. The project was carbon negative at completion, has exceptionally low whole-life carbon, and has been ‘designed for disassembly’ so that all its material resources can be easily recovered at the end of its life. The house has won a RIBA National Award and the RIBA South Sustainability Award, and has been longlisted for RIBA House of the Year.
Cork House was based on the outcomes of a research project that was part-funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC under the 2015 Building Whole Life Performance funding competition. Led by Matthew as director of MPH Architects, the project team included The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, University of Bath, Amorim UK and Ty-Mawr, with subcontractors including Arup and BRE.
Matthew is currently working on an all-timber house raised up amongst the trees on a hillside in Somerset.
Educated at Cambridge and the Bartlett UCL, Matthew has previous experience in architectural practice in London and with Dido and Gavin at Jestico & Whiles in Prague. He has also designed sets for Opera North, and initiated and managed property developments.
Matthew is an architectural tutor, and has taught diploma units at the AA, Cambridge University and London Met, where he was awarded the RIBA Tutor Prize in 2004. He is currently a postgraduate thesis tutor at the Bartlett UCL.
“Over the last few years, I have become increasingly aware of the environmental impact of architecture and construction. As a result, I am constantly trying to develop an ecological and whole-life approach to making buildings – from how they are created in the first place right through to where they go to when they die.”
