Bartlett Graduate Wins Interior Architecture Award in Global Design Graduate Show

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the international Global Design Graduate Show (GDGS) was launched to showcase 2019-20 graduates of programmes across the full spectrum of art and design. Awards were given in a variety of categories, including Interior Architecture.

Matthew’s winning project, ‘An Ode to Apollo’, is a centre for research in acoustics and musical production, platforming both creative and scientific studies of sound. In defiance of the unrelenting roar of the neighbouring elevated-railway, the facility is a prototype in how we might occupy such acoustically-challenged pockets of the built environment. Contained within this architecture of attenuation, a series of inhabitable music chambers celebrate and amplify the weird and wonderful dynamics of sound and space.

Matthew studied in Unit UG8 and won The Bartlett Year 3 Portfolio Prize. He aims to study Architecture MArch at The Bartlett. He is also a musician and filmmaker, and combines his understanding of these disciplines in his work.

“I am deeply grateful to the judges and staff at i-D and Artsthread for considering my thesis project, and including it amongst the winners. Particularly after such a testing bookend to my degree, receiving this award as well as The Bartlett portfolio prize has been a welcome and validating experience.

Credit is owed to The Bartlett’s inimitably encouraging, creative and vibrant community. I sincerely hope my reverence for the school, staff, professors, and my peers has been evident in my output and enthusiasm throughout my degree. To have been afforded a place at The Bartlett is a privilege that has never been lost on me  – any additional good fortune is icing.

-    Matthew Simpson

More information

• See Matthew’s project at ARTSTHREAD
• More about the project on The Bartlett Summer Show 2020 website
• Read the announcement on i-D’s website
• Architecture BSc