Design Your Life with Vince Frost

What happens when you take a Victorian era locomotive workshop, built in 1887, and turn it into a home for contemporary sculpture? Matt Mewburn has spent the last decade finding out.
Matt is a blacksmith and sculptor, and the founder of Eveleigh Works, a working forge inside one of the last remaining industrial blacksmithing workshops in the world, complete with machinery dating back to the 1850s. At 27, with no savings and a lease he couldn't afford, he took over the space anyway. What followed was a career built on physical prototyping over drawing, on letting materials push back against ideas, on making things the old way, and on the belief that nothing worth doing gets designed cleanly on paper.
Blacksmithing is one of the oldest crafts in existence, and full time careers in it are rare in 2026. Matt has built one anyway, developing an international commission list and a practice that sits closer to contemporary art than traditional trade, which raises the question at the heart of this episode: what does it take to keep a craft this old relevant now?
Tune in as Vince and Matt get into the discipline of working with heavy materials, the three metre tuning forks Matt made for a performance at the Sydney Opera House, what it takes to revive one of the world's oldest professions, and what it means to build a life with no long term plan at all.
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What does an institution built in the 1820s have to teach us about designing for the future? Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon has spent two decades moving through museums, historic houses and public space, and now leads the State Library of NSW into its 200th year.
In this episode, Caroline talks with Vince about the library as one of the last true third spaces, somewhere people come to be alone together. She unpacks why trust and human connection sit at the heart of public institutions, what the data says about belonging and wellbeing, and why the resurgence of physical books and slow reading isn't nostalgia, it's a response to digital exhaustion.
The conversation also covers Caroline's own career, from a PhD written between naps with a newborn, to a Churchill Fellowship that changed how she thinks about public space, to a hard-won Instagram detox.
Listen now for a conversation about libraries, longevity, and what it means to design for connection.
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What happens when architecture is driven by passion, adventure and the power of nature?
On the latest episode of Design Your Life, Chad Oppenheim joins Vince Frost for a wide-ranging conversation on creativity, resilience and designing life beyond buildings.
From growing up in suburban New Jersey dreaming through films like Star Wars and James Bond and becoming fascinated by the dramatic architecture of movie villains’ lairs, to creating some of the world’s most extraordinary hospitality projects shaped by desert, sea and landscape, including Desert Rock Resort and Shibara Resort, Chad shares the experiences that formed his worldview.
Tune in as Vince and Chad explore travel as education, the realities of running a creative business, balancing ambition with family, and why great architecture should engage every sense; sound, scent, emotion, memory and our connection to the natural world.
A powerful conversation with one of architecture’s most passionate voices.
https://oppenoffice.com/
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What does it take to design spaces that feel like a series of carefully crafted scenes?
In this episode, Vince sits down with architect Ismael Soto, founder of SOTO, whose global career spans some of the world’s most influential practices before launching his own studio in Los Angeles.
They discuss the role of research in design, the evolving impact of AI on architecture, and how new housing models must respond to climate, community and changing ways of living.
Listen as Vince and Ismael explore how architecture can be experienced like a sequence of scenes — shaping mood, emotion and the way we move through space.
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What does it take to build not just a successful practice, but a lasting partnership?
In this episode, Vince sits down with Tim Hay and Jeff Fearon, founders of the critically acclaimed architecture and design practice Fearon Hay. Nearly 30 years into their journey, they reflect on how a shared vision, mutual respect and deep friendship have shaped both their work and their lives.
From early ambitions and formative influences, to growing a globally recognised studio across New Zealand, Australia and the United States, Tim and Jeff share how they’ve stayed intentionally small, focused and true to their values.
They discuss why New Zealand design consistently punches above its weight, their approach to creating architecture that is deeply connected to place, and what it means to design with longevity in mind.
Listen as Vince, Tim and Jeff explore partnership, purpose, and the idea of designing a life through architecture.
https://fearonhay.com/
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