Matthew Soules is an architect, scholar, and activist whose work explores the political economy of architecture. Across design, research, and writing, he examines how architecture can operate formally, aesthetically, and materially as a generator of social life and as an alternative to the alienating tendencies of contemporary society.
Matthew Soules Architecture works at multiple scales and in diverse contexts, from intimate interiors to large public spaces. The practice has received numerous awards, including Emerging Firm and Special Jury awards from the Architectural Institute of British Columbia, the Architizer A+ Award (Cultural Pavilions), the Pinnacle Award in Public Space from the International Downtown Association, and the Silver Medal from the Interior Design Institute of British Columbia. Its work has been published in Azure, Canadian Architect, eVolo, Domus, Metropolis, The Globe and Mail, and the National Post, among others.
His recent research focuses on the relationship between capitalism, financialization, and architecture. His book, Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021), demonstrates how urban space and buildings have evolved to function as investment assets. His work on finance capitalist architecture includes analysis for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), a contribution to the Italian Encyclopediaof Science, Literature and Arts, as well as a Japanese translation of Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin (Soshisha Publishing, 2025).
In 2021, he co-founded Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA), a collective that operates on three fronts to advance de-commodified housing: exhibitions, research, and pedagogy. AAHA represented Canada at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture and has contributed to group exhibitions at Milan Design Week and the Belkin Art Gallery, among others. AAHA is conducting ongoing SSHRC-funded research on the architecture of de-commodified housing in Vancouver and Toronto. In 2025/26 AAHA organized a cross-Canada ‘superstudio’ in which architecture students from schools across the country are developing design proposals aimed at ending housing alienation. Matthew has twice been awarded the Housing Design Education Award, given jointly by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the ACSA.
Soules is 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). He has contributed chapters to books such as Industries of Architecture (Routledge, 2016) and Post-War Middle-Class Housing (Peter Lang, 2015). His essays and articles have appeared in Canadian Architect, Harvard Design Magazine, Journal of Architectural Education, Log, Perspecta, Places, Praxis, and Real Review. He has received funding from BC Housing, the British Columbia Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Global Affairs Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
In addition to teaching at UBC, Matthew 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
M.Arch, 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.