My name is Matyáš and I am a graduate of UMPRUM IN PRAGUE AND the Royal College of Art in London. I gathered work experience in Paraguay at the studio of Javier Corvalán, at the Prague-based studio Petr Hájek Architekti, and at Foster and Partners in London. I specialize in product design, interior design, and architecture. At the moment I am also working on establishing my own brand of design products called Mata by Mata.
In 2017, I designed a playful furniture family for public spaces that caught the attention of the Swedish company Nola. They subsequently included the Saddle and Tilted benches in their portfolio. In the same year, I presented my Fireplace project at Home Expo Vallastaden 2017. The project included 9 pieces of handmade furniture, which I placed around the center of the room to create the illusion of a fireplace.
After graduating from UMPRUM, I was accepted to two foreign universities: Rhode Island School of Design (USA) and Royal College of Art (UK). After several sleepless nights, I decided on the more prestigious one, the London-based RCA. I studied interior design, and my final thesis was the Rainwater Fountain – a modular system aimed at helping people in densely populated areas better manage rainwater. The Fountain not only captures rainwater but also turns it into potable water, thanks to the materials it is made of. My work caught the attention of the architects Petr Hájek and later Norman Foster.
At Petr Hájek Architekti, I became a part of a small team that won a competition for the conversion of the Cibulka estate in Prague into a children’s palliative care center. We also participated in an international architectural competition for the new Vltava Philharmonic Hall, in which we beat several larger teams such as the Norwegian studio Snohetta or the Japanese studio SANAA, and won fourth place.
Last May, with the Rainwater Fountain project featured on the front page of my portfolio, I applied for the position of Materials Researcher at the British architectural studio Foster and Partners, and I got the job. Unfortunately, the post-Brexit visa situation is so complicated that it has only allowed me to work in one of the most prestigious architectural offices in the world for 14 days so far. It was at the turn of November and December of last year when I was there just in time to design a Christmas tree for Norman Foster.
It has been almost a year since my interview and I still don’t know if I will get my visa and be able to come back to London or not. In the meantime, I’ve been dedicating my time to establishing my own brand, Mata by Mata. I have created several products that I have presented at several design festivals, and I plan to attend many more with them. Among the first products are Tripus seating objects, playful My Light lamps, 3-Way three-legged vases, and the MATA modular library.
