Elected ARSA: 19 March 1958

Robert Hogg Matthew was born in Edinburgh. He  studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and qualified as an architect in the early 1930s. From 1936 worked at the Department of Health for Scotland in Edinburgh, subsequently becoming Chief Architect and Planning Officer in 1945. While working in Sweden in 1944 he designed kits for prefabricated houses in response to the need for cheap affordable housing at the end of World War Two.

 

From 1946 to 1953 he was Chief Architect and Planning Officer to the London County Council, during which time, with John Leslie Martin (1908-2000) he was responsible for the design of the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank (1949-51).

 

In 1956, with Stirrat Andrew William Johnson-Marshall (1912-1981), Matthew established RMJM (Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall), an architectural practice with offices in Edinburgh and London. In the the 1950s and 1960s his practice was responsible for the redevelopment of areas in Edinburgh and Glasgow, notably the replacement of the tenements in Hutchesontown, Glasgow with tower blocks. Other projects on which Matthew was engaged were the design of the British Home Stores on Princes Street, Glasgow; the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh (1966-69); and Edinburgh Airport (1975-77). His practice also designed a number of university buildings in Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

Matthew was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1932 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1955. He was a Pugin Prizewinner in 1929; a Soane Medallist in 1932; and an Arthur Cates Prizeman in 1932. In 1962 he was knighted for his services to architecture and town planning and in 1970 was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. He was President of the International Union of Architects (UIA) from 1961 to 1965; President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (PRIBA) from 1962 to 1964; and President of the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA). From 1953 to 1968 he was professor of Architecture at Edinburgh University. He died at his country house, Keith Marischal, at Humbie near Edinburgh, on 21 June 1975