Pieter J. Mathews

Dr. Pieter J Mathews

PhD in Architecture with Specialisation in Design (UFS) & Principal Architect of Mathews and Associates Architects

Pieter J Mathews was born on 24 February 1967 in Lichtenburg in the North-West Province as the fourth of five children. He matriculated as head boy from Lichtenburg High School in 1985. He obtained his BArch Degree in 1991 at the University of Pretoria, receiving the prestigious Goldfields of SA Scholarship for Architecture. He is married with two sons and resides in Pretoria.

Together with Jacques Gerber, Mathews and Gerber was established in 1995. The beginning of the millennium marked new beginnings and Mathews and Associates Architects was formed.

In 2011 he was elected as of the President of the Pretoria Institute for Architecture and was simultaneously appointed Architectural Editor for DeKat Magazine. From 2012 – 2013 Pieter served as a SAIA board member. He was also the convener of Cool Capital Biennale 2014 for which he received the PIA President’s award with Carla Taljaard. In 2016 he was appointed as curator for the South African Pavilion at La Bienale di Venezia, Italy. He also presented a TEDx talk on the Cool Capital initiative in 2016. In 2018 Mathews was honoured by die ‘Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns’ with the Medal of Honour Visual Art (Architecture). This prestigious award has only been awarded to twenty architects since the establishment of the foundation in 1909. Pieter completed his practiced-based Master’s study in Architecture at the University of the Free State in 2019 and has completed his PhD in Architecture with Specialization in Design at the same institution in 2023.

Pieter wrote Architexture, published by Visual Books in August 2003, which received the Pretoria Institute for Architecture Presidents Award. In 2007 Detail Housed followed. He was the publishing editor for Construction Primer by Hans Wegelin. In 2010 he was commissioned by the Pretoria Institute of Architecture to edit Contemporary Capital. In 2010 Decade of Design celebrating the work of the first decade of MAAA. Pieter and Carla Taljaard edited the Cool Capital Biennale which was released in 2014. He edited the 2017 Cool Capital Guerrilla Magazine as well as the 2018 publication Saadjies. In 2019 The Sample Workshop was published followed by Musings in 2021 – a retrospective of Mathews and Associates Architect’s work over the past 20 years.