Architect. Born in Manchester and educated at the Universities of Newcastle and Edinburgh, Murphy established his own architectural practice in Edinburgh in 1991. Beginning with house extensions and mews conversions, he developed a distinctive Modernist style involving the combination of stone, wood, lead, grey-painted steel and glass, with the roof often sitting apart from the main structure, presented as an element with its own prominence. Influences on his work include his adopted city of Edinburgh, but also the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa, of whom Murphy is an acknowledged expert.
Murphy designed the first of the UK's Maggie's Centres (Maggie's Centre Edinburgh; 1995). His other work includes the Fruitmarket Gallery (Edinburgh; 1991), Bishop Sydserff's House (Edinburgh; 1994), Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre (1996), Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre (Peebles; 1998), the John Muir Birthplace (Dunbar; 2001), the Tolbooth Arts Centre (Stirling; 2002), the award-winning Caer Amon housing development at Cramond (2003-07), new-build parts of the prestigious Quartermile development in Edinburgh, British Golf Museum (St. Andrews; 2015) and the redevelopment of the former railway goods yards at Haymarket (Edinburgh; 2017). Murphy has also built his own home in Edinburgh's New Town.
Murphy was the first architect to be nominated twice for the Stirling Prize. He is an Academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was awarded an honorary degree by Edinburgh Napier University (2002) and an OBE in the New Year Honours List of 2007. His practice now employs 25 people in offices of his own design on Old Fishmarket Close in the Old Town.
