Matthew Griffin

Matthew Griffin studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal (Bsc Arch 1993) and at the Architectural Association in London (AA Dipl. 1996).

Matthew Griffin is the co-founder of Deadline, Urban Issue, and LocallyGrownCity.net with Britta Jürgens. Lives and Works in Berlin. Active in various citizens initiatives, including Bürgerinitiative Invalidenstrasse, Team11 and Initiative Stadt Neudenken.

Deadline’s work explores the structural changes taking place (technological, social and economic) at the end of the mechanical age, and their particular effects on architecture and urban planning. To realize their projects they assume multiple roles intertwining political activism, project development, and design.

Since it first launched, Deadline has experienced an evolution in Berlin from abundant empty space in the center of town with no investors, to a shortage of space and investors knocking at their door – or as they put it “from ‘Wild East Frontier’ to ‘Hipness Capital of Europe’.”

Deadline recently finishes Germany’s first cultural co-ownership project, FRIZZ23, in Berlin Kreuzberg. In doing so, Deadline’s founders are expanding Berlin’s tradition of co-housing projects to a larger scale of collaborative thinking and collaborative developing. Read our interview below and read about Matthew’s motivation to take on the role of being a developer in addition to that of an architect, and to hear about the potentials and opportunities that have come from this move.

Deadline strives to inspire and empower people to create their city themselves, and explores these themes in the blog locallygrowncity.net.