Matthew Soules is an architect who explores the political economy of architecture. Across design, research, writing, exhibitions, and pedagogy, he examines the physical form of buildings as a medium through which competing ideologies are literally constructed. His work makes visible—and acts upon—the cultural, economic, and political forces shaping buildings and cities.
Matthew Soules Architecture works at multiple scales and in diverse contexts, from intimate interiors to large public spaces. The practice makes architecture that is conceptually ambitious, sensorially rich, and open to unexpected possibilities for contemporary life. It has received a range of awards, including the Emerging Firm and Special Jury awards from the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, the Architizer A+ Award (Cultural Pavilions), and the Pinnacle Award in Public Space from the International Downtown Association. Its work has been widely published, including in Azure, Canadian Architect, Domus, Metropolis, and The Globe and Mail.
Soules’s recent research focuses on the relationship between capitalism and architecture. His book, Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021), demonstrates how buildings and cities have physically mutated to function as financialized investment assets. His work on financialized architecture includes analysis for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a contribution to the Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Literature and Arts, and a Japanese edition of Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin (Soshisha Publishing, 2025).
In 2021, he co-founded Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA), a collective that works to advance de-commodified housing. AAHA represented Canada at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture and has contributed to group exhibitions and events, including Milan Design Week. The collective is conducting SSHRC-funded research on the architecture of de-commodified housing and, in 2025/26, organized a cross-Canada “superstudio” in which architecture students from schools across the country developed design proposals aimed at ending housing alienation. Soules has twice received the Housing Design Education Award, given jointly by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).
Soules is also the editor of Future Social: Design Ideas, Essays, and Discussions on Social Housing for the ‘Hardest-to-House’ (Blueimprint, 2012) and author of Binning House (ORO, 2017). His writing has appeared in publications including Harvard Design Magazine, Journal of Architectural Education, Log, Perspecta, Places, and Real Review. His research and creative work have received support from SSHRC, the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Housing, and other public agencies.
In addition to teaching at UBC, Soules has been Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and Visiting Faculty at SCI-Arc. Prior to starting Matthew Soules Architecture, he worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in New York, and Nick Milkovich Architects/Arthur Erickson in Vancouver.
Education
MArch, Harvard University
BA, University of British Columbia
Selected Publications
Matthew Soules, “Architecture Becoming Finance: A Means to Ethical Real Estate,” Harvard Design Magazine 52: Instruments of Service (Fall/Winter 2024): 78-83.
Matthew Soules, Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021).
Matthew Soules, “Financial Formations,” in Industries of Architecture, eds. Katie Lloyd Thomas, Nick Beech and Tilo Amhoff (London: Routledge, 2016), 199-209.