Matt Milwid

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The long arc of architectural projects. They have a clear beginning, middle and end, and each phase brings a different rhythm. Early stages are about exploration; later ones about coordination, judgement and problem-solving under real constraints.

Because projects unfold over years, the work never feels repetitive. Just as one phase starts to feel familiar, the project shifts. Watching something evolve from a sketch into a building is what keeps the job engaging.

What is essential for delivering a great project?

Continuity. Great projects depend on people who understand not just the current drawing set, but the history behind it and the early decisions, compromises, and unresolved questions that resurface years later.

Staying with a project builds trust. It gives clients, contractors and consultants a consistent point of contact, and allows problems to be solved with context rather than guesswork. Architecture is a team effort, but it benefits enormously from long memories.

Which city inspires you the most?

Amsterdam. I’m drawn to the way a deeply wealthy city expresses itself with restraint - the Calvinist modesty of its architecture, carefully detailed, human in scale and confident without being showy.

Layered onto that is the life of the city itself: water everywhere, bicycles instead of motorised bravado, and a public realm that feels genuinely lived in. Architecture doesn’t compete for attention in Amsterdam; it quietly supports daily life, which I find far more meaningful than spectacle.

What recharges you on weekends?

Time outdoors. Living in a dense city makes me value space, quiet and natural landscape more. I try to get away whenever I can. Long walks, early starts, road trips, or simply being somewhere with a horizon.

Stepping outside the urban rhythm resets my perspective. It’s where ideas settle, problems untangle themselves, and Monday feels less hostile