Richard Murphy

Education

Murphy was educated at Newcastle and Edinburgh Universities, and has taught at the latter.

Career

In 1991 he formed Edinburgh architectural firm, Richard Murphy Architects, and it has since grown to over twenty architects. In the early years his firm focused on designing extensions to houses and mews conversions however have subsequently diversified onto education, healthcare, the arts and commercial work. They have worked on several United Kingdom National Lottery-funded buildings.

In 1995 Murphy designed the first of the United Kingdom"s Maggie"s Centres, in Edinburgh, which now acts as the administrative headquarters for Maggie"son

Designed to aid cancer treatment, the building was designed without any corridors, to avoid an institutional feel. While teaching at Edinburgh University, he researched the work of the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, and later published a book on Scarpa, and later yet presented a Channel 4 documentary on him.

He also co-wrote "An Architect"s Appreciation of Charles Rennie Mackintosh". In 2004 Murphy exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

In 2012, Richard Murphy Architects published a book titled "Of Its Time and of Its Place: The Work of Richard Murphy Architects."

He was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the New Year"s Honours January 2007 for services to architecture, the only practising architect on the list.

Murphy has held lectures in places such as Scotland, at Edinburgh University, the Student-led 5710 lecture society of The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and The Built Environment, Aberdeen and Strathclyde University in Glasgow. In 2006 he completed a lecture tour in South Africa, and on 13 March 2012 he gave a conference titled "Architecture of its time and its place" to students at Barcelona Institute of Architecture. Most recently Murphy lectured at the Association of Icelandic Architects in 2015.

He previously completed a modern mews-style house at Calton Hill near Edinburgh Castle, for his own use, and says he lives "pretty simply".

Haymarket Redevelopment, Edinburgh

Candleriggs Quarter in Glasgow"s Merchant City

Dunfermline Museum & Art Gallery, Fife

Perth Theatre, Fife

Projects by year of design

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1991

Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, 1996

Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre, Peebles, 1998

Nominated for 2004 Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor Best Building in Scotland

Caernarfon Arts Centre, Wales, 2000

Olorosso Restaurant, Edinburgh, 2001

John Muir"s Birthplace, Dunbar, East Lothian, 2001

Computer Centre, Merchiston Campus, Napier University, Edinburgh, 2001

Tolbooth Arts Centre, Stirling, 2002

British High Commission, Sri Lanka, 2008

Housing Moore Street, Glasgow, 2008

University of East London - Computer and Conference Centre, London, 2009

Stratheden Dementia and Mental Health Unit, Fife, 2009

Justice Mill Lane Park Inn Hotel and Office Development, Aberdeen, 2011

Queen"s University Belfast Postgraduate Accommodation, Belfast, 2012

Old See House Mental Health Facility (in association with RPP Architects), Belfast, 2014

Postgraduate Housing for The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2014.

Achievements

• He is the founder and principal architect of Richard Murphy Architects, an architectural firm operating in Edinburgh. Richard Murphy Architects has also won a total of 20 Royal Institute of British Architects Awards. More recently Richard Murphy completed his own house on Hart Street in 2015 which won a the Saltire Society Award for Best Single Dwelling New Build Maggie"s Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1994 + 1999 extension Nominated for 1997 Stirling Prize.

Membership

Murphy is a Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of Napier University.