Matter Again
Timber-clad buildings at Linbro Park seen through mature trees

Proposal for discussion ยท September 2026

Matter Again,
Year One.

A twelve-month programme for the institute's first year, from the name and the website to a working institution, ending with the first Matter Again Conference at Linbro Park in September 2027.

Prepared by Akoma for Muneer

Where we stand

Year Zero gave Matter Again a name, an address and a first audience.

In five months the institute went from an idea to a public presence. Everything below already exists. Year One builds on it rather than starting again.

  • A name and an identity. Matter Again was approved in August 2026, with a mark, colour and type system and a brand reference. Formal name and trade-mark clearance is still to be completed.
  • A website. matteragain.co.za is live, with the institute's purpose, the material system, a library of ten built prototypes at Linbro Park, an info@ address and a contact form.
  • A first public talk. Matter Again presented at the Timber Construction Conference in Pretoria on 15 September 2026. People came to us afterwards: a forestry industry body with a large pallet supply, the architect of a major timber campus building, and requests to visit Linbro Park.
  • A body of evidence. Ten buildings by professional architects, and a handful of books on the work already published through the in-house publishing entity. The system is drawn, photographed and written up.
The musallah at Linbro Park, with its pallet-timber tower and stained-glass arch
Linbro Park, Johannesburg. The founding address and first prototype library.

Year One

One year to turn a name into an institution.

Matter Again is now bigger than any one project. It can host the conversation about reclaimed materials in South African building, and bring makers, architects, researchers and funders into one room. Year One has three outcomes.

01

A working programme

One internal session to set the vision, two public workshops at Linbro Park and one two-day conference, each dated, budgeted and delivered. Matter Again becomes a place people come to, not only a site they visit.

02

An evidence base

The pallet system has no formal approval route yet. Year One documents the system properly, maps what it would take to use it beyond Linbro Park, and puts the approval gap on the conference agenda.

03

A network

The people who came forward in September become the first partners. In October, Akoma goes to the Green Building Convention as Matter Again's representatives. A year later the institute hosts its own conference.

The programme

Four quarters. Four tracks. One destination.

One internal session to set the vision, two public workshops at Linbro Park, and steady work on evidence and partnerships underneath. The conference is the destination the whole year points at.

  1. Q4 2026 October to December

    Set up and show up

    • Programme, roles and budget approved
    • Green Building Convention, Cape Town, 27 to 29 October: Akoma attends as Matter Again's representatives, with Muneer and Yusuf
    • Internal visioning workshop: guiding principles, the scope of reclaimed materials, the long view
    • LinkedIn page live, first articles published
  2. Q1 2027 January to March

    Make and map

    • Workshop 1 at Linbro Park: deconstruction and the block system, hands on. A first taste of the conference
    • Research agenda agreed and published
    • First partner collaboration scoped
    • Prototype library expanded with construction detail
  3. Q2 2027 April to June

    Widen the circle

    • Workshop 2: beyond timber. Earth, rubble, low-cement concrete, guest makers
    • International exchange slot: one collaboration with a like-minded programme abroad
    • Conference call for speakers and makers opens
    • Conference budget approved
  4. Q3 2027 July to September

    Build up and gather

    • A prototype built in the run-up, to open at the conference
    • The first Matter Again Conference, two days at Linbro Park
    • Year One report to Muneer and partners
    • Year Two programme proposed

The four tracks

Events

Two public workshops, one internal session and one conference. Each has a date, a theme, a budget approved in advance, and a simple record afterwards: who came, what was made, what was learned.

Evidence

Document the material system and the ten prototypes properly. Map the route to formal approval in a series of working sessions, and put the system on projects beyond Linbro Park as evidence of demand. Publish what we know, and say clearly what we do not yet know.

Partnerships

Turn September's inbound interest into a handful of real collaborations: pallet supply, a shared build, a research link. Small, concrete and finished beats large and vague.

Communications

A LinkedIn page, a monthly article, website updates, and every enquiry through matteragain.co.za answered. Matter Again speaks in its own voice, with Akoma writing and publishing.

Angled pallet-timber panels on a building at Linbro Park

The conference

Two days inside the buildings.

September 2027. The first Matter Again Conference, held at Linbro Park, where every session takes place inside a structure made from reclaimed pallets. Timed for conference season, between the Timber Construction Conference and the Green Building Convention, when the people we want in the room are already travelling.

Day one

Make

Workshops across the precinct. Deconstruct pallets, stack walls, arrange blocks, test ideas. Architects, students, builders and makers get their hands dirty and leave with something they built.

Day two

Talk

Talks and showcases along four draft tracks: design, the technical route to approval, feasibility and finance, and the social case. Innovation runs through all of them. Timber first, then other reclaimed materials. Invited architects, researchers, makers and policy people present built work, not slides about intentions.

  • Where. Linbro Park, Johannesburg, inside the prototype buildings.
  • When. September 2027, the exact dates fixed once the 2027 conference calendars are published.
  • Who. Architects, engineers, builders, students, researchers, material suppliers, funders, government and policy people, the Green Building Council, and the public.
  • Run-up. The two workshops feed it, and a prototype built in the run-up opens on day one.
  • Theme. The approval gap: how new and reclaimed materials get from prototype to permitted. The reason to bring regulators, funders and the council into the room.
  • Founding members. The conference is where Matter Again invites its first members and patrons.

The long view

Year One is the first year of something much larger.

Picture Linbro Park ten years from now. The pallet buildings are still standing, and beside them are walls of rammed earth, floors of reclaimed concrete, and structures made from materials that today go to landfill. Architects fly in from three continents to see how it was done. A builder trained here runs a workshop in a hall she helped put up. A material developed here carries a certificate that lets any contractor in the country specify it. This is what Matter Again can become: the place where South Africa learns to build from what it already has.

  • A platform for reuse. Reclaimed materials and reuse across the built environment, not only timber. Based in Johannesburg, working internationally.
  • Partners around the world. Standing relationships with the leading reuse and sustainability institutions abroad, with people and ideas moving both ways.
  • From research to the mainstream. New material systems developed here, tested, certified and handed to industry ready to specify.
  • Skills on the ground. Training programmes for builders and makers, and research collaborations with universities.
  • A voice in policy. Shaping regulation and public opinion on alternative materials, tying waste, sustainability and jobs into one argument.
  • Beyond timber. Earth construction, builder's rubble, low-cement concrete, and whatever comes next.
  • An incubator. Research spun into ventures that take these systems to market and feed back into the institute.
  • On its own feet. Over time, several channels carry the work: membership, the conference, grants, and the ventures it starts.

Alongside the founder's other initiatives, Matter Again becomes an influencing body that no single project could be. None of this is promised for Year One. All of it is what Year One is for.

Roles

Matter Again leads. Akoma runs the programme.

A glamping unit at Linbro Park among mature trees

Matter Again is its own entity. Akoma proposes to be its programme office: the team that plans, produces, writes, follows up and reports, so that Muneer, Yusuf and Zubair can lead without carrying the admin.

Muneer
Founder and patron. Sets direction, approves the programme and budget, opens Linbro Park to the work, and represents the institute where it matters most.
Yusuf
Academic lead. Owns the evidence track: research agenda, the approval-gap map, academic partners and the rigour behind every public claim.
Zubair
Lead contributor and Akoma partner. Carries the programme day to day, speaks for Matter Again at events, and leads partner conversations.
Akoma
Programme office. Planning, event production, communications, partnership follow-up, website and brand, quarterly reporting, and the conference as producer.

Governance stays light in Year One: a monthly check-in between Muneer, Yusuf and Akoma, and a written quarterly report. A formal structure, and any legal vehicle, is a Year Two question informed by what Year One shows.

Investment

A monthly retainer, and an open conversation about the best structure.

We suggest a monthly retainer for the programme office, with programme and conference costs budgeted separately and approved in advance. We are open to discussing the structure that works best for Matter Again. Figures follow once the shape of the year is agreed.

01

Programme office retainer

A fixed monthly fee to Akoma for running the programme: planning, production, communications, partnerships and reporting. Predictable for Matter Again, continuous for the work.

02

Programme budget

Workshop costs, materials, documentation, website and content. Set per quarter and approved before spending. Akoma manages it and accounts for it in the quarterly report.

03

Conference budget

A separate budget for the two-day conference, proposed in Q1 2027 and approved by Q2. Sponsorship and ticketing can offset it; Year One plans without relying on either.

Outside this proposal: new building work, new photography, book production, legal fees for name and trade-mark clearance, and any grant or sponsorship income, which Year One treats as upside rather than budget.

Next steps

Agree the shape now. Start in October.

Three things move Year One from proposal to programme.

  1. A working session

    Muneer, Yusuf, Zubair and Mo agree the programme shape, roles and retainer structure. Before Muneer travels in October.

  2. Dates and budget

    Akoma tables the Year One budget and the first two workshop dates within two weeks of that session.

  3. Green Building Convention

    Akoma goes to Cape Town on 27 to 29 October as Matter Again's representatives and pushes the institute hard: an institute with a programme, not only a website. We would like Muneer and Yusuf there with us.

A timber post and pallet-block wall in an open pavilion at Linbro Park

Matter Again, Year One

The buildings are already there. Now the institution.

Zubair and Mo
On behalf of Akoma
September 2026

Akoma