Mountain Fold Architecture

Mountain Fold Architecture Mountain Fold is a UK-based contemporary architecture practice committed to designing environmentally sustainable buildings.

I’ve been meaning to properly introduce myself for a while. I’m Matt, founder of Mountain Fold Architecture, an RIBA Cha...
09/06/2026

I’ve been meaning to properly introduce myself for a while. I’m Matt, founder of Mountain Fold Architecture, an RIBA Chartered practice based in East Sussex. I design contemporary, sustainable homes across the UK, and residential work in the Turks and Caicos Islands with Coast Architects.

Before setting up Mountain Fold in 2017, I had the privilege of working at Ushida Findlay Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, and Coast Architects. Three very different practices, specialising in experimental spatial craft and design, serious sustainable architecture, and international luxury residential design respectively. What connected them was a way of working: every decision grounded in something real, whether that’s climate, place, material, or the way people actually live.

That experience is what Mountain Fold is built on. Fabric-first design that takes its cues from the site and the people who’ll inhabit it, buildings that feel like they belong.

If you’re thinking about a project - an extension, renovation, or new build - and you want an architect who’ll think carefully about where it sits and what it should be, I’d be glad to talk.

Some places demand more of a building than others. What does yours demand?

Integrating a handrail into the wall capping, keeping the rear wall clean.
04/06/2026

Integrating a handrail into the wall capping, keeping the rear wall clean.

St Benedictusberg Abbey, Vaals, Netherlands, designed by Dom Hans van der Laan.Van der Laan was a Benedictine monk and a...
13/05/2026

St Benedictusberg Abbey, Vaals, Netherlands, designed by Dom Hans van der Laan.

Van der Laan was a Benedictine monk and architect, who developed a three-dimensional system of proportion called the plastic number. The plastic number is rooted in two perceptual limits: 3:4, the smallest size difference that reads as deliberate; and 1:7, the largest ratio where two sizes still feel part of the same system. In the abbey, wall thickness is the unit from which everything else derives.

Photo credit: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE), CC BY-SA 3.0 NL

“Lunch Run.”After twenty-odd years of entering the London Marathon ballot, this year it finally came through, and what a...
06/05/2026

“Lunch Run.”

After twenty-odd years of entering the London Marathon ballot, this year it finally came through, and what an amazing day it was. The crowds and atmosphere were fantastic.

Training started off the back of the Beachy Head Marathon last autumn, which meant a winter of long runs along the Eastbourne seafront. Not always the most sheltered spot in January, but certainly worth it. I finished in 4:46, my pace pretty consistent throughout, which was the aim.

It was also the first proper test of FuelCast, the fuelling app I had be building through my training and was released just before the event (). I ate exactly when it told me to, and finished smiling.

Back at my desk the next morning, sore, and straight onto a new project.

Stage 6: Handover.The builder finishes but the architect doesn’t, not quite. Stage 6 is checking for defects, the comple...
23/03/2026

Stage 6: Handover.

The builder finishes but the architect doesn’t, not quite. Stage 6 is checking for defects, the completion certificate, and the conversation about how the building will perform over the next decade.

At Pembury, for the family it meant no more living on a building site. The cold winters with a missing wall were finally behind them. It also meant me standing in this room for the first time as a completed space. The open plan that had existed only in drawings and models was now three-dimensional and full of light. The larch cladding weathering as expected, the garden visible from every corner of the ground floor. That was the brief, that’s what was built.

Full story in the blog - link in bio.

Stage 4 is where the design stops being a proposal and becomes a set of instructions.Every material confirmed, every jun...
17/03/2026

Stage 4 is where the design stops being a proposal and becomes a set of instructions.

Every material confirmed, every junction drawn in detail. The wall build-up specified layer by layer – internal linings, vapour control layer, timber frame and insulation, breather membrane – in the right sequence, with no gaps.

This is where design either holds or unravels. However well a wall is insulated on paper it can still underperform if the detailing isn’t precise enough for a builder to follow. Stage 4 is the stage that closes that gap.

For the Pembury Extension, this meant resolving how diagonal larch cladding meets horizontal, how the new timber frame ties back to the existing brick, and how every eaves and verge junction performs as well as it looks.

The full story of Stage 4 is in the blog. Link in bio.

Stage 3 is where the concept becomes a commitment. On this project, that meant resolving three things at once: a new ext...
14/03/2026

Stage 3 is where the concept becomes a commitment. On this project, that meant resolving three things at once: a new extension that read as deliberately different from the existing building, larch cladding that unified the dormers and the new volume, and an entrance that actually announced itself.

The diagonal cladding to the new garage extension contrasts with the horizontal run of the existing house. That contrast is intentional, marking the addition without pretending it was always there. The larch across the dormers ties it back together.

The original entrance sat in a recess between the garage and the house. You arrived, but the house didn’t acknowledge you. It got a proper frame, a threshold. Somewhere the house says: this is where you come in.

Post 3 of 6. Follow to see how it develops.

Stage 3 is where the concept becomes a commitment. On this project, that meant resolving three things at once: a new ext...
14/03/2026

Stage 3 is where the concept becomes a commitment. On this project, that meant resolving three things at once: a new extension that read as deliberately different from the existing building, larch cladding that unified the dormers and the new volume, and an entrance that actually announced itself.

The diagonal cladding to the new garage extension contrasts with the horizontal run of the existing house. That contrast is intentional, marking the addition without pretending it was always there. The larch across the dormers ties it back together.

The original entrance sat in a recess between the garage and the house. You arrived, but the house didn’t acknowledge you. In the proposal the entrance got a proper frame. A threshold. Somewhere the house says: this is where you come in.

Post 3 of 6. Follow to see how it develops.

Concept Design is where ideas compete. On this project, two options were developed, different in character and different...
12/03/2026

Concept Design is where ideas compete. On this project, two options were developed, different in character and different in how they sat on the site. One was quieter, one pushed harder. Both were tested against what the client needed and what would work on the site. Then something shifted, and that pencil sketch is the moment the preferred layout first appeared. It wasn’t the final answer, but it was the direction to take forward. Post 2 of 6. Follow to see how it develops.

The client had an idea: more space, better flow between rooms, more connection to the garden. A home that finally felt l...
10/03/2026

The client had an idea: more space, better flow between rooms, more connection to the garden. A home that finally felt like theirs. That’s where Stage 1 begins.

Before any design work can begin, the brief needs to be tested against what the site can actually offer. A triangular plot, with space to expand to the side and the rear. Slightly tricky access. Constraints that look like problems until you understand how to work with them.

What came out of Stage 1 wasn’t a drawing. It was a clear brief: open plan kitchen, dining and living space connecting to the garden, a laundry, a fifth bedroom, and an office space. Plus a list of nice-to-haves to work towards.

Stage 1 doesn’t look like much from the outside. But it’s where the project gets set up to succeed. Full story in the blog - link in bio.

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Eastbourne

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Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm

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