Established in 1973 Rick Mather Architects built a reputation for delivering high quality, innovative, award-winning projects encompassing architecture, masterplanning and urban design. Completed work is recognised for innovation and expertise in the intelligent re-interpretation of existing, often listed structures and in sustainable, low energy buildings.
Award winning projects include the renovation and extension of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Wallace Collection, the National Maritime Museum in London, ARCO and Sloane Robinson Buildings at Keble College Oxford, Constable Terrace at the University of East Anglia, The Times Newspaper headquarters in London's Docklands, private residences in Hampstead and the Zen restaurants in London, Montreal and Hong Kong.
Elegance
“Mather always ends up with ‘deceptive simplicity’ rather than evident complexity.”
Robert Maxwell
Our buildings and masterplans are characterised by an apparent simplicity that disguises the complexities of a challenging brief, historic fabric, or urban constraints. We relish the challenge of these projects and the process of distilling a solution that exceeds clients' expectations and provides an efficient and legible solution.
We have won numerous awards for our buildings and designs and we believe our ability to distil the essence of a project from complex parameters is the key to a Rick Mather Architects building.
Efficiency
“Rick Mather and his team have a talent for reduction; like creating a fine bouillon from a large pan of stock – all of the superfluous fluids are boiled off... and the trick is not to allow it to be reduced too much.”
Patrick Bellew, Atelier Ten
We understand the value of space and consider every square metre to be precious. Each project is carefully tested to ensure that a design is both generous and economic in the correct places. A solution is tailored to a detailed understanding of requirements but with sufficient flexibility to address future needs and changes
Context
“Mather's is one of the first names on anyone's list when it comes to stitching bits of damaged urban fabric together... Giving something to the street is practically the motto.”
Hugh Pearman, Sunday Times
We bring a holistic approach to the placing and integration of a scheme. Our experience in urban design demands that each building is not just a series of elevations but establishes strong and meaningful external spaces that can reconcile a disparate context.
Projects do not just extend and define the public realm but provide a vision for future development, recognising that each building is often one piece in a long-term vision for a site. Understanding and defining this vision is a key aspect of our work, working with both the historic and future uses of a site.
Energy
Since 1982 Rick Mather Architects worked to build sustainable projects, pioneering a number of technologies in the UK in advance of the developments in legislation. There was a strong commitment to a universal approach to the environmental performance of a building, recognising the value of an integrated and responsible approach that considers the massing, orientation and environmental strategies of the building from the outset. Besides this, the approach strived for every building to remain useful and correctly sited for as long as possible.
All projects should embrace low-energy design regardless of type, from high density residential developments to the refurbishment and extension of listed public museums. Our work at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has again demonstrated it is possible to provide a low-energy sustainable solution for the display of exhibits, providing a series of galleries that double the display space within the existing footprint.
Our work in Central Milton Keynes in the past ten years started with an original masterplan for the sustainable urban quarter and developed into a detailed high-density development for phase I, incorporating standards for airtightness and low-energy use on an unprecedented scale for the UK.