Matt VanSweden is 2018 Future Hall of Fame Honoree

Matt VanSweden of Catalyst Partners has been selected as this year’s recipient of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Future Hall of Fame Award.

As a firm, Catalyst Partners exists to create spaces in which all species can flourish. As an Integrative Designer, Matt focuses his work on equipping design teams with the right tools at the right time necessary to solve the right problems; optimizing the design process with chaos, order, and a bit of humor. His design work is equal parts alchemy, art, and adventure.

Among other things, Matt is the state’s foremost expert on the Living Building Challenge, which is the current epicenter of his professional work. Matt loves the number three (3), enjoys engaging the wilderness in the wherever, and lives with his wife and three children in Grand Rapids.

The award honors an emerging professional whose work deserves wider recognition. Past recipients include Eric Saigeon, Brock Rodgers, and Sarah Chartier. This year’s selection committee included Kris Spaulding, Gayle DeBruyn, Eric Saigeon, Autumn Sands, Sara Meyer, Tom Newhouse and Mark LaCroix.

It will be presented at the 5th Annual Triple Bottom Line on Wednesday, October 10 at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts. Learn more about the event here.

His best known work is the Saginaw Chippewa Indiana Tribe’s tribal college in Mt. Pleasant, the Living Building Challenge project completed in 2014 when he was in a similar role at Integrated Architecture.

“That project manifested much of my career aspirations, the relentless pursuit of restorative ecological design,” he said. “It was a transformative project continues to influence me to this day.”

He also created and installed eight temporary pop-up parks across Grand Rapids in collaboration with almost 60 companies, individuals, and organizations for events ranging from TEDxGrandRapids to SiTE:LAB to Kendall College of Art and Design.

“While the execution varied for each park, I’ve presented constant themes of urban agriculture, food justice, inclusivity, urban mobility, circular economies, and water conservation,” he said.

To date, all the parks have been temporary installations. Sometimes dubbed “pop-up parks,” suggesting that they “pop up” only for a relatively short time. These parks are not meant to serve as permanent solutions but rather to invite the user to re-imagine ways in which we can utilize urban spaces at a scale more appropriate to humans and at speed more appropriate for pedestrians which are accessible to everyone.

He recently graduated from Kendall College of Art & Design, where he was the recipient of the Excellence Award, the highest honor a student can achieve.

“As a college drop-out, finding myself starting a family at the young age of twenty-two; I had to endure a decade of poverty and hard work before the opportunity to finish the undergraduate degree I started twelve years prior presented itself,” he explained. “In 2013, at the age of thirty-one, I found myself in a conference room with the then president of KCAD, Dr. David Rosen to talk about an intercollegiate living-learning space I had envisioned.

After the meeting, Rosen was intrigued to learn that Van Sweden had yet to earn a degree. He offered him a scholarship to attend the school in pursuit of a B.F.A. in Collaborative Design.

“I don’t have large, grandiose projects to proclaim,” Van Sweden said. “I’m not the loudest advocate or the best fill-in-the-blank. I hope that my work represents a divergence from what is usually considered ‘successful’ and, instead, offers a sustainable, accessible, and authentic way to ‘live well in one’s place.’”