About
Ma-tt-er is a materials practice founded by materials translator, researcher and author Seetal Solanki, working across re/searching, designing and learning.
Taking a materials-first approach, the practice explores and translates the material and immaterial relationships between people, place and process. Its work is situated in the materials, skills, knowledge, production and making practices of a place, understanding what already exists and the possibilities held within it.
Through writing, publishing, mapping, making, curation, strategy, exhibitions and learning, Ma-tt-er builds relationships between materials and the people and places they belong to.
Rather than seeking universal solutions, Ma-tt-er works with what we have to create situated alternatives, opening up other possibilities for how materials can be understood, valued and applied to their fullest potential.
Discover what you’re made of.
Client
- Ace & Tate
- British Council
- Beirut Design Week
- Blackhorse Workshop
- Clerkenwell Design Week
- Clerkenwell London
- Converse
- Crafts Council
- DAZED
- Design Museum London
- Elisava
- Form Design Center
- FRAME Magazine
- The Future Laboratory
- G . F Smith
- Hereford College of Arts
- Hyundai
- Iceland Academy of the Arts
- Ithra, Tanween Season
- IKEA / SPACE 10
- It's Nice That
- Kingston University
- Laundry Arts
- London College of Communication
- London College of Fashion
- Loréal
- MIDL, Bratislava
- MOLD Magazine
- Molonglo Group
- Nike
- Nirvana CPH
- Obonjan
- Open As Usual
- Politecnico di Milano
- Potato Head Bali
- PUIG
- Pure London
- Red Deer
- Riposte Magazine
- Space Doctors
- Stylus
- TOOGOOD
- Unilever
- Venice Glass Week
- Viewpoint Magazine
- WGSN
- World Water Day
- Yauatcha
Press
- 52 Insights
- Ace & Tate
- A/D/O
- Aesthetica Magazine
- AIGA Eye on Design
- AnOther Magazine, 2018
- AnOther Magazine, 2015
- Arab News
- Asian Paints 2018
- Asian Paints 2017
- Clove Magazine, 2018
- Clove Magazine, 2017
- Cool Hunting
- CNN
- Condé Nast Traveler, Nov 2018
- Crafts Council
- Crafts Magazine
- Creative Review
- Design Observer
- Hiut Denim, Do One Thing
- DAZED
- dezeen, 2018
- dezeen, 2015
- Financial Times
- FRAME, The Mars Challenge
- FRAME, Materials are a Powerful...
- Gal-dem
- Garage Magazine
- The Guardian
- It’s Nice That, Ones To Watch
- It’s Nice That, Nicer Tuesdays
- It’s Nice That, Intl Women’s Day
- It’s Nice That, Grenfell Tower
- It’s Nice That, Material Spaces
- It's Nice That, Book Launch
- Katamama, Potato Head
- Lecture in Progress
- LS:N Global, A Matter of Stuff
- Monocle Radio
- New York Times
- Port Magazine
- Riposte Magazine, 2017
- Riposte Magazine, 2016
- Sight Unseen
- Something Curated, 2018
- Something Curated, 2017
- Thoughtstarters Podcast
- TL Magazine
- Trendland
- Wallpaper•
- WIRED Magazine
- Wrap Magazine
- Zetteler, 2018
- Zetteler, 2016
- Zetteler, 2016
- Zetteler, 2015
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Re/Searching - Plotting
Re/searching is where we begin.
We plot the material and immaterial relationships between people, place and process: materials and their origins, alongside the skills, knowledge, histories, cultures, infrastructures and relationships that surround them.
Through writing, publishing, mapping and the Material Atlas, we trace where materials come from, how they move, who works with them, how knowledge is passed on and what possibilities they hold.
Re/searching underpins the practice. It allows us to understand what already exists before deciding what needs to exist next.
Writing · Publishing · Mapping · Material Atlas
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Designing - Translating
Designing is how research takes material form.
We translate what we learn through making, building, objects, products, spaces, exhibitions, curation, strategies and briefs. Working with the particular conditions of a place, we consider its available materials alongside existing skills, knowledge, production and ways of making.
Our materials-first approach begins with what we have rather than what we need to add.
Instead of designing universal solutions, we create situated alternatives: possibilities that emerge from the relationships already present between people, place and process.
Making · Objects · Products · Spaces · Exhibitions · Curation · Strategy
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Learning - Navigating
Learning is how knowledge travels.
Through learning frameworks, workshops, teaching, public programmes, talks and keynotes, we create ways to share material knowledge and bring others into the process.
Learning allows us to navigate what might come next together: exchanging skills, questioning established ways of doing things and creating the conditions for new material relationships and practices to emerge.
Rather than knowledge travelling in one direction, learning is relational. Everyone brings something, everyone learns something, and what we discover together can be carried forward.
Learning frameworks · Workshops · Public programmes · Teaching · Talks · Keynotes