Studio
Mountain Fold Architecture is a UK-based contemporary architecture practice creating homes that truly belong to their landscape. Based in East Sussex, I work across the UK, Europe, and the Caribbean, designing new homes, extensions, and renovations that feel both timeless and forward-thinking.
How I Work
Every project starts with listening – to you, your site, and the building traditions that have grown up in that place over generations. I dig into the local history, the old crafts and methods, not to copy them but to understand why they developed and how they help buildings work with their climate and landscape. This contemporary vernacular approach creates homes that carry the DNA of their location while speaking a completely modern language.
Your home gets designed around how you actually live. I look to understand your routines, your dreams, what makes you feel truly at home, then shape spaces that support and enhance your daily life. Love morning light flooding the kitchen? Need quiet corners for focused work? Every detail serves your unique way of living.
Rooted in Place
I design buildings that respond to what makes each site special – the way the land moves, the views, the weather patterns. It’s about creating those seamless moments between inside and out that celebrate what’s unique about your particular piece of the world.
Built for Tomorrow
Sustainability isn’t something I bolt on at the end – it’s woven into everything from day one. Through smart passive design, natural materials, and energy systems that just work, I create homes that are comfortable year-round while barely touching the grid. They age beautifully rather than wearing out.
Why Work With Me
When you work directly with me, you get clear communication, my full attention, and consistency from concept to completion. I collaborate with brilliant consultants and contractors I trust, but you always have that direct relationship with the person designing your home. That personal connection matters when we’re creating something as important as where you live.
I’ll guide you through every stage, sharing my thinking so you understand not just what your home will look like, but why it works. From first sketches through construction and beyond, I’m here to create something that’s authentically yours – rooted in place, built for the future, and designed for the life you want to live.
Ready to discuss your vision for home? Contact me today to start the conversation.
Matthew Barrass, director
BSc (Hons) MArch BSc (Mathematics) ARB RIBA
I’m an RIBA Chartered Architect who founded Mountain Fold after a decade of experience at internationally recognized practices across the UK and Caribbean. My journey began studying at Winchester School of Art and the University of Bath, followed by formative years at the pioneering Ushida Findlay Architects in London – where their experimental approach opened my eyes to architecture’s true possibilities – and seven years at Stirling Prize-winning Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios in Bath.
At FCBS, I delivered projects across the schools and higher education sectors, including serving as project architect for the Plymouth School of Creative Arts (the ‘Red House’), which was shortlisted for AJ100 Building of the Year in 2016. My path then led to Coast Architects in the Turks and Caicos Islands, one of the Caribbean’s leading practices specializing in luxury residential and resort projects. As Associate, I designed high-end homes across multiple Caribbean islands, deepening my understanding of how architecture must respond to climate, culture, and place.
I founded Mountain Fold Architecture in 2017 to focus on the type of architecture I’m most passionate about – sustainable, thoughtful homes that enhance daily life and connect meaningfully with their landscapes. Living in East Sussex with my wife and young daughter keeps me grounded in what really matters when creating family homes. When I’m not designing, you’ll find me running through the South Downs, which reinforces my belief that our homes should connect us to the natural world around us.