Matter Studios
Matter Studio has received a RIBA South West Award 2024.
Matter are a product innovation consultancy based in a historic building in the centre of Bath. Originally built as a carriage works, their premises had changed use several times and was carved up into a warren of poorly connected spaces without much natural light. Stonewood Design have transformed it into a more open, welcoming, flexible studio that supports, frames and shapes how the company works.
Due to the confidential nature of their design work, Matter are not always able to showcase their projects, so the studio needs to convey their ethos and personality.
The attention to detail is obsessive, joyful, and inventive – a spirit that extends from the fine metal entrance gates, through the front of house lighting and worktops, to the storage and pipework in the toilets.
There are two glazed entrance porches, both opening on to a new central ‘design corridor’ containing a large table for meetings and presentations, as well as the office kitchen. Putting social interactions and wellbeing at the heart of the studio, this is an inspired move.
Behind the kitchen is a window on to a workshop where prototypes or mock-ups of ideas can be made. Upstairs is an open-plan workspace.
Something refreshing is the make-do-and-mend way that equal value has been given to all elements of the fabric, whether they are bespoke new items or standard, crude building materials. In one room where a ceiling was removed, trusses made with basic stamped metal connecting plates have just been left exposed; and where a new cut-out was made in a concrete floor, the cutter marks and metal deck formwork are visible. It is evident that every decision has been carefully considered, and there is a strong enough hierarchy that the bigger moves remain legible.
