Matt + Fiona

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Matt + Fiona

MATT+FIONA offer unique, hands-on, practical education programmes for children and young adults. BUILD is the exciting next step of their work.

MATT+FIONA is a collaborative venture between architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald, built on a long history of working together on architectural-based education initiatives. Through their initiatives they offer unique, hands-on, practical education programmes for children and young adults. BUILD is the exciting next step of their work, happening in collaboration with a wide and wonderful network of professionals with complementary skill sets to support them in their work.

13/09/2026

Long term care, custodianship and material re-use in action. ♻️ ✨

This summer the incredible Young Placemakers from Fitzrovia Youth in Action Fitzrovia Youth in Action created public realm seating for the Regents Park Estate using the materials from the Reflect pavilion they built two years ago on Hampstead Road.

Building on the skills they learned then, the group reconfigured the timber frames, solid pieces of wood, geometric ply shapes and metal mesh to create playful seating and plant-growing structures. The iconic blue & material timber furniture will go on-site early next year as part of LDA Design wider landscaping and greening. Watch this space 🔭

Beautiful project led by Jess at M+F, Ellie at Fitzrovia Youth in Action Afiyah at Camden Council and Kirsty & Manfredi LDA Design 🙌

Photos by Brittany Hefren Jess and members of Fitzrovia Youth in Action

07/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who came to our workshop sharing the approaches we’ve been developing for CIVIC SQUARE Design & Construction Club at the symposium at the London School of Architecture

So many joyful interpretations of ‘Reveal’, ‘Enhance’, ‘Monitor’ and ‘Highlight’ - the themes we’ve been exploring with the DCC young people this year - all through the medium or reused materials:
Red woollen thread upcycled from the Hayward Gallery 🧶
Sequoia from a felled tree at an arboretum from MATERIAL STORE via YES MAKE Tipping Point East 🪵

What wonderful, spontaneous and playful creations! 📍♦️🧱🔺🧮🚩🖍️✂️📌

It can be nerve-wracking sharing approaches with other architecture and design educators, but this group were so kind, generous and fun, we needn’t have been. and I learned lots too.

Thank you .mahon Meike and for including us and for bringing together so many interesting practitioners 💥

27/08/2026

Nothing light a shot of pink to cheer up a gloomy morning 🍬🎟️🩷🦩

This autumn we’ll be launching our FREE architecture & built environment school resources and so last week we tested out one of the lesson plans, a big paper build… a spatial exploration you can make with a single real of A3 paper and a roll of colourful masking tape.

Thank you to Bywater for letting us test our ideas in Paradise, their new timber frame work space in Lambeth.

School resource development made possible by the Happold Foundation 🙏🏼

Photos by Angela Grabowska

24/08/2026

How lucky are we to have another wonderful new team member! Introducing Brittany Hefren, Brittany Hefren all the way from the opposite side of the world 🗺️

Brittany has a Bachelor of Creative Industries and brings experience in communications, engagement and programme coordination across arts and non-profit sectors in Australia. She is also a practising photo-media artist, finding new ways to see the streets and buildings she walks past every day.

As now seems to be customary M+F practice, Britt’s first day saw her thrown into a workshop at the deep end, this time the final day of a build with Fitzrovia Youth in Action - and she rose to the challenge 💥 We’ll reveal more about what’s going in this particular photo - a different kind of build - later this week.

In the meantime please join us in giving Brittany an especially big welcome 🤗

Portrait by Angela Grabowska

11/08/2026

The Best Rest 🪑🌷 🐛

“We noticed that insects were only found on the plants on the site. We wanted to create a place of rest for both insects, plants and people.

The roof gives shade to the plants and people. The chair is very big and could fit two people with two arm rests on the side so you can eat your lunch. We will grow grape, rose, sunflower, tulips and lavender in the plant boxes. The fabric stops the sun from going onto the bench.”

This structure was imagined, designed and built by members of the CIVIC SQUARE Design and Construction Club during the three-day summer build.

Photo Credits:
Angela Grabowska
Jake Phillips

10/08/2026

The Water Swing 💧🪣

“We were inspired by the drains we found on the site, we noticed plants growing in these areas. Our structure has a gutter system that takes rainwater to the soil, plants, flowers and rocks.

There is a swing seat built into the structure so you can have fun and watch the water collecting. On the sides are engraved designs of rain, flowers, fruits and animals which the structure can feed, we would like to create a bird bath on the site for the birds.”

This structure was imagined, designed and built by members of the CIVIC SQUARE Design and Construction Club during the three-day summer build.

Photos by Angela Grabowska and jake phillips ~ photographer

09/08/2026

The Art Cart 🎨 ✏️

This structure allows people to share their ideas for the site through creativity. It has drawers to store material samples from the site, a drawer for paper, a cup holder for pens, string to hang drying art and paintings, a shelf to display polaroids and a place to put your headphones. The perspex on the doors allow people to draw their own imagined ideas of the site in situ.

This structure was imagined, designed and built by members of the CIVIC SQUARE Design and Construction Club during the three-day summer build.

Photos by Angela Grabowska and jake phillips ~ photographer

06/08/2026

The Sun Knight, Sun Clock ☀️ ⏰

“This is a 2.6 metre tall structure which produces shade for the user and community. It has lots of amazing features with things like folding tables and shade hangers, which fold up and down. We created it because the day we were designing and imagining our structure, it was extremely hot, so that influenced our design. We named it the Sun Knight because it is defending us from the sun.”

This structure was imagined, designed and built by members of the CIVIC SQUARE Design and Construction Club during the three-day summer build.

Photos by Angela Grabowska and jake phillips ~ photographer

05/08/2026

Last week we hosted our second design & build programme with the truly brilliant CIVIC SQUARE Design and Construction Club in the Neighbourhood Public Square.

This three-day site takeover marks the final chapter of this year’s Design & Construction Club journey.

In Chapter 1, we developed core design skills and explored the fundamentals of the design process.
In Chapter 2, we put those skills into practice by designing and making furniture for the home.
In Chapter 3, we explored where materials have come from, how they are processed and used.

The Design & Construction Club have applied these new skills and learning to the Neighbourhood Public Square Site, exploring the materials, conditions and nature of the existing site while imagining what it could be in the future.

These explorations have led to the four structures in Neighbourhood Public Square, imagined, designed and built by the design and construction club young designers, aged 10 to 16. As the change-of-use planning application is being considered, these structures reveal how the group see the site today and how they envision it becoming a tool for transformation in the future.

Their creations communicate the imagined potential of the space and the role it can play in creating a more welcoming, vibrant, and community-led neighbourhood.

Huge thanks to the CIVIC SQUARE team including Imandeep Kaur Daniel catriona James Binning sarah & so many others who it’s always such a privilege to work with, and of course the amazing young designers themselves. Thanks above all to who leads this project with such care & thought, and to all the volunteers who joined us - above all Katarína from Start with Children Summit who came all the way from Bratislava to knowledge exchange ✨

Photos by Angela Grabowska and jake phillips ~ photographer

03/07/2026

This year’s Life Afloat with scaled up in ambition, with the primary schools creating painted timber shakes to decorate a new pop-up shelter Floating Classroom are creating with . The shelter will enable Floating Classroom to make use of Stone Wharf for their brilliant learning activities year-round, in all weathers.

The children used saws to shape the timber (all from sequoia Yes Make had salvaged when it had to be felled due to disease), letter punches to add lettering, and painted graphics to symbolise what the cancel means to them. Great to collaborate with Adam from too.

We will share an update once the shelter is complete!

Address

London
SE17DR

Website

http://www.mattandfiona.org/

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