Dr Matthew Jones

Head of School

Birmingham School of Architecture and Design

Email:: matthew.jones3@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:: 0121 300 4285

Matthew is Associate Professor and Head of Birmingham School of Architecture & Design. He is an architect and academic with expertise in making places and communities. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Design Council Expert.

A graduate of the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA), Matthew worked at the Young Architect of the Year Award finalists Design Research Unit Wales (DRU-w) and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Architects before founding his practice, Coombs Jones. He held academic positions at the Welsh School of Architecture and the University of the West of England (UWE) before joining BSoAD in 2019 as Director of Technical Studies. Matthew developed the innovative BA(Hons) Design for Future Living degree in Collaboration with the educational charity MOBIE before becoming Head of School in 2021.

Matthew’s expertise is in practice-led research. His research focuses on the role of design in creating thriving and resilient towns and high streets. He completed a practice-led PhD exploring place specific approaches to the development of rural towns and he has expertise in community-led place planning. In his recently published book ‘Transforming Towns: Designing for Smaller Communities’ (RIBA Publishing, 2020), he explores the role of architects and designers in transforming our towns to help them thrive. He has developed these themes through artist residencies, events and workshops, co-design activities, architecture, urban design, university-community collaborations, community-led planning and academic research and teaching.

Qualifications

Memberships

Teaching

Research

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Jones, M., (2021), ‘The Territorial Imagination: Re-visiting the work of Luigi Snozzi (1932-2020) and the Monte Carasso Design Seminar’, Journal of Civic Architecture (7).

Jones, M., & Forster, W., (2021) Dialogues with People & Place: Toward an Empathetic Approach to Mapping Place Identity. Building Material (24).

Jones, M., (2021), ‘Creating Thriving Towns: What is the future for Wales' towns in the aftermath of the pandemic?’, Places for Life 2, Cardiff: Design Commission for Wales, pp. 50-55.

Jones, M., (2020), Transforming Towns: Designing for Smaller Communities, London: RIBA Publishing.

Columbano, A. & Jones, M., (2020), ‘Collaboration for innovation in housing: The role of the civic university in delivering new homes in the city’, Paper presented at: AHRA Housing and the City Conference, Nottingham University, 19-21 November 2020.

Sara, R., Jones, M. & Rice, L., (2020), ‘Austerity Urbanism: Connecting Strategies and Tactics for Participatory Placemaking’. CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts.

Jones, M & Spence, A (2019) ‘Planning for well-being: a critical perspective on embedding well-being in community-led planning processes’ in Designing for Health & Wellbeing. The Interdisciplinary Built Environment (Vernon Press, Delaware, USA), pp. 137-154.

Jones, M., Rice, L., & Meraz, F., (2019), 'Designing for Health & Wellbeing: Home City Society’, Delaware/Malaga: Vernon Press.

Sara, R. & Jones, M., (2019), ‘Co-constructing community wellbeing: Developing a framework to identify how student-community collaborative public space projects impact on community wellbeing’. In Jones, M., Rice, L., & Meraz, F., (2019), Designing for Health & Wellbeing: Home City Society’, Delaware/Malaga: Vernon Press, p.187.

Sara, R. & Jones, M. (2018) ‘The university as agent of change in the city: Co-creation of live community architecture.’ ArchNet-IJAR, 12 (1). pp. 326-337. ISSN 1938-7806

Jones, M. & Spence, A. (2017). ‘Empowering local people through the planning process: The emerging practice of ‘Place Planning’ and its contribution to community well-being in Wales’. In: Brotas, L., Roaf, S. and Nicol, F., eds. Design to Thrive. Edinburgh, UK: Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings, pp. 4493-4500.

Oliveira, S., Burch, J., Hutchison, K., Adekola, O., Jaradat, S. & Jones, M. (2017) ‘MMC modes of delivery in housing: Effects on Housing Association clients.’ Project Report. Flagship Group.

Jones, M. & Forster, W. (2015) ‘Reimagining rural towns: A design-led approach’, Paper presented at: Re-imagining Rurality, London, UK, 27-28 February 2015.

Jones, M. (2011) ‘Incremental urbanism: An economic approach to the small town.’ Paper presented at: Economy, Cardiff, UK, 6-8 July 2011.

Coombs S., Forster W, Jones M, & Thomas R. (2009), ‘Sustainable Sitka Spruce Housing : Ty Unnos’. Paper presented at NOCMAT conference, University of Bath.

Coombs S, Forster W, Jones, M, & Paradise C. (2008), ‘Zero Carbon by 2011: Achieving Sustainable Affordable Homes in Wales’. Paper presented at: PLEA 2008, University College Dublin.

Jones, M. Paradise, C. Coombs, S. & Forster, W. (2007): ‘The tectonics of prefabrication: Manufacturing with place in mind.’ Paper presented at: Tectonics: Making Meaning Conference, Eindhoven University of Technology.

Jones, M. (2006), ‘Finding and defining place: the 13th International Design Seminar, Monte Carasso, 2-15 July 2006’, Architectural Research Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 9-11.

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