# Matter Make

> Matter Make (Dfab Studio Ltd) is an architectural design and fabrication studio in Burmarrad, Malta, founded in 2009. Design and fabrication happen under one roof in a 900 sqm factory: architecture, interiors, custom joinery (kitchens, wardrobes, wall units, desks), installations, clay 3D printing on a WASP delta printer, robotic milling and sheet forming, and free digital design tools. Signature line: "We make what matters."

Contact: smile@mattermake.com · +356 9988 6788 · Warehouse 7, Y&P Industrial Park, Triq Burmarrad, Naxxar NXR 6345, Malta. Elsewhere: https://www.instagram.com/mattermake/ · https://www.facebook.com/mattermakemalta.
Methodology: Applied Environmental Systems · Regional Tectonics · Custom Joinery · Digital Fabrication. The environment is not the backdrop; it is the brief. Regional tectonics reads every project through ten lenses: ground, climate, water, ecology, materials and supply, fabrication capacity, infrastructure, governance, culture and use, lifecycle and maintenance.
Machines: CNC router, 6-axis robot, laser cutter, WASP clay 3D printer, steam box and a timber workshop.

## What we do
- [Design](https://www.mattermake.com/design): analysis first, a tight brief written with the client, and a set of tools assembled for each project; practice, research and teaching as one feedback loop.
- [Fabrication](https://www.mattermake.com/fabrication): physical tools (6-axis robot, CNC router, laser cutter, clay 3D printer, the timber workshop) and digital ones we write to drive them (JIMM, the joinery builder behind Quick Quote; the Rejig configurator).
- [Build-tech](https://www.mattermake.com/build-tech): processes developed in-house when a project needed a part that didn't exist: incremental sheet forming (Farsons OBH reception desk); robotic free-form milling (Cinema Visiona); steam bending (Spinola Park reception desk); lamella timber structure (Pearl, Arkadia Gozo); copper patination (The Quad · Kikka Home); clay printing (Sikka); a back-up ventilator (E-Vent MLT · 2020 · with Toly Group).
- [Teaching](https://www.mattermake.com/teaching): 34 student projects by 83 students from AUD5641 Architectural Technology II, Master of Architecture, University of Malta, 2016–17 to 2021–22: fibreglass, sheet, strips, reciprocal frames, tessellation, printed clay.
- [Lab](https://www.mattermake.com/lab): the digital tools we build to do the work. Some are free for anyone; some run only inside the studio.
- [Rejig](https://www.mattermake.com/objects/rejig): A wall that rearranges. Slotted plywood panels and a kit of shelves, hooks and desks that move without tools. Lay yours out in the configurator, and we’ll price it for your room. Formerly called slot wall. Configurator: https://rejig.mattermake.com/

## Work
- [All projects](https://www.mattermake.com/work): every project, by discipline (architecture, joinery, fabrication, tools, software), as a grid, a map or a venn.
- [Spinola reception desk](https://www.mattermake.com/work/spinola-reception-desk): A reception desk of individually steam-bent walnut strips — free-form, generated from a 3D model, with integrated lighting and a built-in planter. (2021)
- [Made to Grow](https://www.mattermake.com/work/made-to-grow): A modular timber early-years school on a hexagonal grid — designed to be added to, season by season. (2026)
- [Sikka](https://www.mattermake.com/work/sikka): Social housing for marine life: a research project with Zibel and ADI to design artificial reefs for Maltese waters, printed and cast here, and tested on the seabed first. (2024 – ongoing)
- [Cinema Visiona, Madliena](https://www.mattermake.com/work/cinema-visiona): The first Cinema Visiona: a basement in a Madliena villa, turned into a home theatre with an undulating seating landscape and acoustic panels made from recycled water bottles. (2021) Awards: MASP Awards · winner 2022 · small project; German Design Award 2024 · winner · excellent architecture, start-up; BIG SEE Interior Design Award 2025 · winner · installation.
- [Cinema Visiona, Għargħur](https://www.mattermake.com/work/gharghur-cinema): A home cinema under the stone vaults of a house in Għargħur — an upholstered seating landscape facing a slotted timber screen, lit from within. (2024)
- [Cinema Visiona, Baħrija](https://www.mattermake.com/work/cinema-visiona-bahrija): The third Cinema Visiona, in the semi-basement of a house in Baħrija: a quilted seating landscape between two walls of lit acoustic fins. (2025)
- [Manouche St Julian’s](https://www.mattermake.com/work/manouche-st-julians): A Paris-inspired bakery and bistro in Spinola Park: American walnut, maroon leather, brass and marble, with banquettes and sculpted bulkheads that divide the room and hide its services. (2017)
- [Panta Hub](https://www.mattermake.com/work/panta-hub): A workplace and showroom organised around a planted wall and an open stair — joinery, acoustic panels and furniture made in our workshop. (2026)
- [Manouche Paceville](https://www.mattermake.com/work/manouche-paceville): A second Manouche, in Paceville, designed and made in-house from a laser scan: engraved walnut and black Valchromat walls, a fluted wall, a cane ceiling and copper planters. (2021)
- [Kikka Home](https://www.mattermake.com/work/kikka-home): A home fitted out in built-in joinery — a library wall with a rolling ladder, a walnut-lined lounge and a spiral stair — designed and made in-house. (2022)
- [Open Tinkers](https://www.mattermake.com/work/open-tinkers): Malta’s first high-street science shop — an ash-veneered, laser-cut ceiling and furniture at a child’s scale. (2017)
- [MDW 2014 pavilion](https://www.mattermake.com/work/mdw-2014): A 5 m parabolic vault of 413 CNC-cut marine plywood panels, interlocking without mechanical fixings — after Abeille’s flat vault of the 17th century. (2014)
- [Pearl, Arkadia, Gozo](https://www.mattermake.com/work/pearl-arkadia): A shop for Pearl at Arkadia, Gozo, built around a tree we cut with our robotic arm, with an S-shaped cashier island and timber ‘ribbons’ that tie every brand display together.
- [Mr Q](https://www.mattermake.com/work/mr-q): Offices for Mr Q in the old Farsons brewhouse: 29 birch plywood arches with cabinets between them, and booths built over the original brewing vats. (2022)
- [The Quad, Q3](https://www.mattermake.com/work/the-quad-q3): A reception desk for The Quad, Q3 in Mrieħel: hammered copper panels patinated in the workshop, a black marble top, and a lower counter so everyone is served at the right height. (2021)
- [Fruit display, Arkadia](https://www.mattermake.com/work/fruit-display-arkadia): A fruit and veg section for Arkadia in Portomaso, designed by Mizzi Studio and built by us: two timber trees with leaves, green fluted cladding and oak curving round the columns. (2023)
- [Laguna pavilion](https://www.mattermake.com/work/laguna-pavilion): A canopy we designed for an island in a pool at Portomaso, never built: thin timber strips bent and woven into a shell, worked out through small bending models in the workshop. (2018–2020)
- [Solstice retreat](https://www.mattermake.com/work/solstice-retreat): A meditation cabin proposed as New Zealand’s first archaeoastronomical building: a Möbius-shaped roof that shades the northern sun, opens to the south, and lets sunlight trace a calendar through an oculus. (2021)
- [Le mur fondante](https://www.mattermake.com/work/le-mur-fondante): The melting wall: solid American walnut milled, carved, sanded and varnished until it looks like chocolate running down the window at Manouche. (2018)
- [The Line gym](https://www.mattermake.com/work/the-line-gym): Pieces for The Line, a gym and spa, made one at a time: a lightbox sign, a milled beech bench, CNC-cut ceiling panels, storage and wall cladding. (2020–2021)
- [The workplace](https://www.mattermake.com/work/the-workplace): A modular office furniture system for a co-working space that feels alive: a few boxes, frames and planters that rearrange into desks, benches and meeting corners. Designed, not built.
- [Annie & Andrew](https://www.mattermake.com/work/annie-andrew): An open-plan kitchen and living room: lacquered kitchen units under oak, an island with a breakfast bar, and a walnut TV wall on a welded steel frame. (2022)
- [Residential, Żebbuġ](https://www.mattermake.com/work/residential-zebbug): A small bedroom in Żebbuġ where the bed and the wardrobe became one piece: a sleep cove in an arch, with storage all around it. (2023)
- [Residential, Mellieħa](https://www.mattermake.com/work/residential-mellieha): A 4.3-metre media wall in a Mellieħa apartment: marble on a ply core, black Valchromat and golden trim, with glass shelves, soft LED light and a slatted divider. (2020–2021)
- [Residential TV unit](https://www.mattermake.com/work/residential-tv-unit): A four-metre TV wall in a Mellieħa apartment: wood-grain cabinets above, black Valchromat below with CNC-cut leaf-pattern doors, and a line of engraved brushed-gold trim. (2019)
- [Residential library](https://www.mattermake.com/work/residential-library): A home library of six boxes and a solid iroko ladder on a black rail, drawn from a laser scan of the room. (2020)
- [Sea views 1](https://www.mattermake.com/work/sea-views-1): A guest bedroom looking out to sea: a walnut headboard wall, a curved wall lacquered deep green, and a desk built along it. (2020)
- [Sea views 2](https://www.mattermake.com/work/sea-views-2): A guest bedroom lined in ribbed walnut, with a day-bed, a walnut desk and bedside tables, and shelves lacquered blue. (2020)
- [Valletta guest house](https://www.mattermake.com/work/valletta-guest-house): Guest rooms in an old Valletta house, where oak joinery does the work: arched headboards, raised platforms, bunks and desks fitted between the limestone walls. (2025)
- [Laser scan for a film set](https://www.mattermake.com/work/film-set-laser-scan): For a film company, we laser-scanned a historic site, then turned the point clouds of a period film backlot into a dense mesh and a clean, usable model. (2020)
- [Wembley façade](https://www.mattermake.com/work/wembley): In Gżira, the art deco front of the old Wembley ice-cream factory had to come down and go back up. We laser-scanned it and gave every stone a code. (2022)
- [Sun Lab, Qormi](https://www.mattermake.com/work/sun-lab-qormi): A flagship shop for Sun Lab at the Landmark in Qormi: three folded concrete ribbons that shade, shelter and open up, with furniture from one mould that folds on into the ceiling. (2018)
- [Flip-dot window](https://www.mattermake.com/work/flip-dot-window): A flip-dot display the length of a kitchen window in Madliena: rows of two-coloured dots that click over to draw words, patterns and the odd game of pac-man. (2018)
- [Farsons Old Brewhouse desk](https://www.mattermake.com/work/farsons-obh-desk): A round reception desk for the old Farsons brewhouse in Mrieħel, clad in copper panels our robot pushed into shape one pass at a time. (2022)

## Lab
- [Made to Grow](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/made-to-grow): Lay out a Made to Grow timber school on a hexagonal grid, read eleven live studies, and get the bill of modules that builds it. (a studio tool; https://grow.mattermake.com/)
- [Quick Quote](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/quick-quote): Our in-house quoting app. Enter a kitchen or a wardrobe column by column; JIMM builds every part, nests the sheets and prices the job. (a studio tool)
- [BlueHopper](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/bluehopper): We draw our software on a blueprint sheet and wire it up. The drawing becomes a model we can question: what runs where, and what breaks. (a studio tool)
- [Rejig](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/rejig): Lay out a slotted plywood wall in your browser — boxes, shelves, desks and hooks — and get the list of parts. Then we price it and cut it. (free to use; https://rejig.mattermake.com/)
- [D'Arcy](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/darcy): A library of 106 live models of how patterns form — shells, cracks, foam, branching. Move the dials and watch the drawing follow. (free to use; https://darcy.mattermake.com/)
- [Storyboard](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/storyboard): Planning a talk before anyone designs a slide: the order, the argument, the timing, and the jury’s criteria linked to the slides that answer them. (a studio tool)
- [Studio dashboard](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/studio-dashboard): One home for the studio’s tools. Sign-in, projects, quotes, money and mail join up on one page, built role by role. (in development)
- [Gamut](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/gamut): Load a photo and Gamut reads its colours, on your device: the palette, warm against cool, the light and dark masses, and the nearest paint. (free to use; https://gamut.mattermake.com)
- [Malta Metabolism](https://www.mattermake.com/lab/metabolism): What flows into Malta, through it and out again — energy, water, food, materials, waste, traffic and people. Published data, sourced, every model marked. (free to use; https://malta.mattermake.com/)

## Studio
- [Studio](https://www.mattermake.com/studio): who we are, our approach and values, the manifesto, the workshop, careers.
- [Impact](https://www.mattermake.com/impact): what our work changes in materials, ecology and knowledge, and a plain-words FAQ.
- [Contact](https://www.mattermake.com/contact): write, call or book a visit to the factory in Burmarrad.

## Insights
- [Insights](https://www.mattermake.com/insights): essays, project notes, research, the tools we build, and news.
- [Regional tectonics](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/regional-tectonics): The studio’s working agenda: the environment is the brief, read through ten lenses, at the scale of the body, the building and the seabed. (essay, may 2026)
- [Making as thinking](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/making-as-thinking): Why we try a curve, a seat or a sheet of copper in the workshop before we commit to it, and four times the workshop changed what we built. (essay, oct 2026)
- [We make what matters](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/manifesto): Why a small Maltese studio does what it does, and how we work a project out: from the people and the place, through computation, to the workshop and back. (essay, may 2026)
- [What a reef wants from clay](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/reef-clay): What a year in the sea taught us about printed clay, what it didn’t, and how Sikka, our research into reefs for Maltese waters, goes on from here. (research, oct 2026)
- [Mapping an island’s metabolism](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/metabolism): Why we built Malta Metabolism, a map of what flows into the island, through it and out again, and how it keeps measured and modelled apart. (tool, oct 2026)
- [Cinema Visiona](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/cinema-visiona): A basement in Madliena turned into a home cinema where the seating is a landscape, and the two that followed, in Għargħur and Baħrija. (project notes, sept 2025)
- [Printed clay, so far](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/build-tech): What we have printed in clay since 2021, from vases to cellular blocks to reef pieces, and why none of it is on a building yet. (research, oct 2026)
- [JIMM](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/jimm): Our own system for designing, pricing and making joinery from one set of rules, so the drawing, the quote and the CNC always agree. (tool, oct 2026)
- [D'Arcy](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/darcy): Why we built D’Arcy, a free library of 106 live models of how patterns form, and how it helps us read our own work. (tool, oct 2026)
- [Make what matters: why bespoke?](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/bespoke-joinery-for-residential-and-commercial-projects): Why we think made-to-measure joinery is worth it, at home or at work, and how a piece goes from your question to a wall that fits. (essay, dec 2025)
- [Panta Hub](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/panta-hub): A showroom and reception for technical products, made into a place you walk through like an infographic. (project notes, sept 2025)
- [Micro-living large](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/micro-living-large): A small bedroom where the wardrobe and the bed became one piece of joinery: a sleep cove. (project notes, sept 2025)
- [Press & awards](https://www.mattermake.com/insights/press): Where the work has been recognised and written about, with dates and links, kept up to date. (news, oct 2026)

## Names
- Matter Make: the studio (two words; the site writes it in lowercase as a style, "matter make"). Website mattermake.com.
- Rejig: the studio's slotted plywood wall system and its online configurator; formerly called "slot wall" (renamed October 2026).
- Made to Grow: a modular timber system for early-years schools on a hexagonal grid, and the planning platform that lays them out.
- Sikka: a research project with Zibel and ADI on artificial reefs for Maltese waters.
- D'Arcy, Gamut and Malta Metabolism: free digital tools made by Matter Make (pattern, colour, and the island's flows).
- Cinema Visiona: one name for 3 projects by Matter Make: Madliena (2021), Għargħur (2024), Baħrija (2025).

## Optional
- [Full text](https://www.mattermake.com/llms-full.txt): every project, tool and article in full, in one file.
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- [Terms](https://www.mattermake.com/terms): The ground rules for using the Matter Make website and the free tools on it, under the laws of Malta.
- [Accessibility](https://www.mattermake.com/accessibility): How the Matter Make website works with assistive technology, what we know still needs work, and how to tell us when something doesn’t work for you.