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EPISODE 06 | SEASON 01
What does it take to turn an idea into something real, and what happens when creativity meets the realities of business?
Matt Yeoman has spent 40 years working at the intersection of architecture, design, creativity and entrepreneurship. He is a founding director of BGY, the London architecture and design practice that grew from three founders to a team of more than 150 people at its peak, with studios across the UK and Europe.
But this conversation is about much more than architecture.
Matt joins Erik and Julia at Shoreditch Arts Club to explore what four decades of making things has taught him about creativity, taste, ambition, simplicity and building a business around ideas.
We begin with Matt’s unconventional route into architecture. Rather than following the traditional path through maths, physics and art, he studied construction before finding himself at art school, an experience that fundamentally changed how he thought about making things.
It was there that he began exploring an idea that would follow him throughout his career: complex simplicity. Why do some apparently simple things feel extraordinary, while others feel empty? And how much complexity has to happen behind the scenes to make something appear effortless?
From there, the conversation moves into the tension between creative ambition and commercial reality. Matt explains why he believes people talk more about creativity today, but may actually value it less when difficult decisions have to be made. We explore what happened as traditional gatekeepers disappeared, creative tools became available to everyone and the worlds of music, fashion, photography, advertising and architecture became increasingly democratised.
Matt also reflects on what it actually takes to build a creative company. BGY began with three people and eventually grew to more than 150. He talks candidly about learning to relinquish control, trusting other people to make work better than he could himself, hiring people rather than portfolios and the difficult transition from being a practitioner to running a business.
We also explore how buildings, businesses and ideas survive change. From Shoreditch’s transformation over the past 20 years to designing buildings that might need entirely different purposes in 50 or 100 years, Matt explains why the best ideas often need enough flexibility to evolve.
And then there are the “stupid ideas”.
One of them became Shoreditch Arts Club. Another became an entirely separate business. Some worked. Others didn’t. But Matt argues that starting wide-eyed, ambitious and perhaps slightly naive matters. There will always be enough people and practical realities waiting to tell you what isn’t possible.
Towards the end of the conversation, things become more personal. Approaching 30 years of BGY and 40 years in architecture, Matt reflects on handing the practice to the next generation and rediscovering something many ambitious people gradually lose: doing something simply because you enjoy it.
No commercial outcome. No productivity. No need to turn it into anything else.
A conversation about architecture, creativity, entrepreneurship, taste, leadership and the complicated process of bringing ideas into the real world.
IN THIS EPISODE
Matt and Erik & Julia explore:
• Why Matt took an unconventional route into architecture
• The idea of “complex simplicity” and why simplicity is so difficult
• Why taste is difficult to define, but easy to recognise
• Whether creativity has become less valued
• What happens when creative gatekeepers disappear
• Balancing creative ambition with commercial reality
• Growing BGY from three people into a major architectural practice
• Why founders eventually have to relinquish control
• Hiring the person rather than the portfolio
• Why every trend eventually creates a counter-trend
• The return of analogue in an increasingly digital world
• How Shoreditch has changed over 20 years
• Designing buildings that can survive changing behaviours
• The unlikely origins of Shoreditch Arts Club
• Why some of Matt’s best ideas started as “stupid ideas”
• Learning to create without needing an outcome
• What 40 years of making things has taught him
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Preview
01:00 - Meet Matt Yeoman
03:00 - An unconventional route into architecture
07:00 - Art school and feeling like an imposter
11:00 - The idea of Complex Simplicity
16:00 - Taste and knowing when to stop
21:00 - Why you should start naive
25:00 - The reality of building great ideas
30:00 - Do we still value creativity?
35:00 - What happened to creative gatekeepers?
41:00 - Building BGY and learning to let go
47:00 - Hiring people, not portfolios
52:00 - How Shoreditch changed
57:00 - Designing for an unknown future
1:02:00 - Why analogue is returning
1:06:00 - The story behind Shoreditch Arts Club
1:12:00 - Matt’s “stupid ideas”
1:17:00 - Doing things without an outcome
1:22:00 - What Matt would tell his team
Makers Workshop is a podcast by Makers Morrow exploring the people, ideas and processes behind remarkable work.
New episodes every Tuesday.