The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Mathew's work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Mathew
Dr Mathew Emmett AADipl, BSc (UCL)听is an ARB-registered and RIBA-chartered architect, researcher and educator based in the UK. His work operates at the intersection of architecture, art and media, with a particular focus on the 鈥淧olitocene鈥 and the role of architecture as a public communicative medium. His research critically examines the socio-ecological conditions of contemporary society, addressing both their destructive and regenerative dimensions.
From 2024 he served as Guest Professor at the Peter Behrens School of Architecture, D眉sseldorf, where he led a Master鈥檚 design studio exploring the convergence of cognition, ecology and architecture. His teaching emphasises experimental and interdisciplinary methodologies, integrating theoretical inquiry with advanced design practices.
His practice is grounded in intermedia approaches, incorporating video, sound, photogrammetry and digital technologies to investigate the Anthropocene through advancing modes of architecture and immersive experience. His outputs span immersive installations, large-scale public audiovisual events, electronic sound works, and mixed-media prints and drawings, contributing to ongoing discourse on expanded architectural practice.
Having collaborated with renowned architects such as Charles Jencks on prestigious projects such as the Imperial War Museum-North (UK) in collaboration with Studio Libeskind, Portello Park (Milan), the Beijing Olympics (China), Garden of Scientific Speculation (Portrack), and partnerships with YRM Architects, Acanthus Ferguson Mann, and Harrison Sutton Partnership LLP, Emmett is dedicated to creating meaningful architectural experiences.
He has exhibited and performed internationally, including the presentation of听Sender/Receiver听at the inauguration of the Blavatnik Building, Tate Modern, London, in 2016. He is represented by curators in New York, Rome, and London, and has collaborated with practitioners across art, music, dance, and architectural theory, including Eberhard Kranemann, Dave Bessell, Adam Benjamin and Charles Jencks.
Emmett was awarded the Gardener Theobald Scholarship at the Architectural Association, London and the Sir Henry Herbert Bartlett Award at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. His educational background includes a Doctorate in situated cognition and architecture and a Fine Art Foundation at Central St Martins. Notably, Emmett received a research grant to study space-music with Karlheinz Stockhausen in K眉rten, Germany.
As a PhD supervisor and examiner, Emmett actively contributes to the development of art and science collaborations including the 鈧4.1 million EU Marie Curie Project 'Cognovo,' that explored Cognitive Innovation from an interdisciplinary design perspective.
Links:
听
听
Supervised Research Degrees
2024-present: Weiwen Peng (Director of Studies).
2025-present: Yumming Chen (2nd Supervisor).
2018-2023: Zoe Latham (2nd Supervisor).
2015-2019: Birgitte Aga, Second Supervisor.
2013-2019: PI on the 鈧4.1 million EU Marie Curie Project 'Cognovo', which explored Cognitive Innovation from an interdisciplinary perspective.
听
Teaching
As an experienced educator and RIBA Chartered/ARB Registered architect, Emmett鈥檚 teaching is centred on architecture and bridging critical inquiry, rigorous design methodologies and advanced spatial media. He was Guest Professor in Architecture at the Peter Behrens School of Architecture, D眉sseldorf, and has taught at a range of international institutions, including the Architectural Association, Eindhoven University of Technology, Detmolder Schule f眉r Architektur, City University of Macau, NHM New Human Media (Uruguay), Chelsea College of Art, and the Royal College of Art, London.
His pedagogical approach is grounded in the study of the Anthropocene, situating architectural design within broader socio-ecological and technological contexts. The work developed in his studios operates across disciplinary boundaries, integrating architecture with new media practices to explore how spatial design is shaped by ecological systems, cognitive theory, emerging technologies, and the arts.
Through this framework, his teaching advances an architecture that is critically engaged, methodologically robust, and materially realised, one that is innovative, spatially immersive, technologically multifaceted, and inherently interdisciplinary.
Emmett has taught at numerous international/national universities including: Eindhoven University of Technology; Detmolder Schule f眉r Architektur; City University of Macau; NHM New Human Media, Uruguay; Chelsea College of Art; The Royal College of Art; The Bartlett School of Architecture and The AA. His teaching focuses on crossing the boundaries of architectural design with new media architecture, investigating how spaces and design are influenced by advances in a wide range of sciences, cognitive theory and the arts with the aim to create innovative conditions in architecture and immersive environments. The teaching searches for an architecture that is innovative, spatial, immersive, technologically multifaceted, hybridised and interdisciplinary.
International Summer Schools:
2012: 鈥濻tudy of Industrial Ruins 鈥 Perception of Space in Architecture and Culture" is the title of the EU-funded international Summer School 2012 at the 鈥淒etmolder Schule f眉r Architektur und Innenarchitektur鈥 of the Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences. Participating partner institutions are: Plymouth University (England), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Lucerne University (Switzerland) and the Universidade Fumec Belo Horizonte (Brazil).听
2013:听Sensory Living -听dedicated to the study of sensory architecture. The aim is to transfer natural patterns to spatial situations in architecture and culture.听Participating partner institutions are: Plymouth University (England), Istanbul Technical University (Turkey), Lucerne University (Switzerland) and the Universidade Fumec Belo Horizonte (Brazil).
2010. Advanced Digital Architectural Design, International Summer School,Germany.
听
听
Contact Mathew
+44 1752 585168
mathew.emmett@plymouth.ac.uk