Richard Murphy Book, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, Architect, Architecture

Richard Murphy Book : New Monograph

Architectural Publication – Contemporary Buildings by this Edinburgh architect

12 Oct 2012

Richard Murphy Architects Monograph

Richard Murphy Architects Book

“What is formidable about the achievements of Richard Murphy Architects is the range of building types which the practice has mastered.” Sir Richard MacCormac.

‘Of Its Place and Of Its Time The Work of Richard Murphy Architects’

Formed in 1991, Richard Murphy Architects’ early reputation was built on highly crafted and innovative domestic work in Edinburgh, Scotland. The practice has grown both in size and range of commissions, working across the UK and Ireland, in Europe and Sri Lanka and, more than two decades on, has amassed an extensive portfolio, designing buildings and spaces for the arts, education, housing, health, public and community use, as well as master planning.

Cover of the monograph:

photograph from the publisher

Introduced by Sir Richard MacCormac and with contributions from clients, building users, a builder and a concluding postscript by Richard Murphy, Of Its Place and Of Its Time The Work of Richard Murphy Architects covers the entirety of Richard Murphy Architects’ 21 year history and describes over a hundred projects. While demonstrating a thoroughly modern and contemporary approach the practice’s work eschews the fashion for the iconic, preferring instead the strong social analysis of its wide range of completed projects. Nonetheless many architectural influences can be observed and are acknowledged, not least the subject of Murphy’s academic researches and writings, which include his appreciation of the Italian architect Carlo Scarpa.

Richard Murphy Architects provides careful responses to complex contexts—whether insertion, extension or new-build, the practice’s projects develop a dialogue between existing and new, the domestic and the urban. Large or small scale, public or private, each scheme harnesses plan, form, materials and detailing to produce a subtle, sensitively considered result. Covering projects from Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery to the more recent British High Commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from schemes for large housing association clients to the intimate scale of the Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in Edinburgh, this survey of Richard Murphy Architects’ work presents an engaging body of work, and charts the development of a key contemporary architectural practice from the late twentieth century into the twenty-first.

Related events:

– WORK Gallery, London. Richard Murphy in conversation with Sir Richard MacCormac, 16 October 2012, 6-8pm.

– RIBA, London. Exhibition 21 Years, 21 Awards: The work of Richard Murphy Architects, 29 October to 24 November

– RIBA, London. Talk Edinburgh Will Shortly Be Finished: Observations From a Planned City, 30 October, 6.30pm.

– Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. Book launch, 9 November 2012, 6-9pm.

OF ITS TIME AND OF ITS PLACE
THE WORK OF RICHARD MURPHY ARCHITECTS
AUTHOR: RICHARD MURPHY / INTRODUCTION: SIR RICHARD MACCORMAC
OCTOBER 2012
Hardback • ISBN 978 1 907317 76 7
RRP £29.95 / €34.95 / $45.00
24 x 28.5 cm / 9.5 x 11 in
1062 colour and b/w ills • 304 pages
CATEGORY: BUILDING STUDIES AND MONOGRAPHS

A previous book by Richard Murphy on e-architect, posted back in 2001: