Summer 2026 Newsletter of Richard Murphy Architects

YouTube Video of Richard Murphy's House Goes Viral
345,000 views on YouTube and 175,000 on Instagram   

Before Christmas Richard was approached by two young film makers Lena Khokhlova and Ilya Ilyukhn based in Leith. They run a website called “Nostalgia” and make short films about mostly the interiors of people’s houses. So far these have been in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and as far away as a Palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. Their film of Richard’s house in Hart Street went live on March 15^th and, so far, it has amassed 345,000 views and is the second most watched movie they have made. Almost 300 viewers have posted their comments, which are overwhelmingly positive. They are now going on to make a similar film about the house we designed for Graeme and Kim Ritche in Gullane which should go live in August. You can see the film here and find out more about Ilya and Ilyushin’s  work on their website here.

Laidlaw Library, Trinity College Dublin 
Project is out to tender

Our Digital library for Trinity College in Dublin, sponsored by the major donation from the Laidlaw Foundation, is currently being priced by tendering contractors. We hope that a start on construction will be made in August.`

The illustrations show the main space from the rear and the view from the adjacent "Portal" recently completed.

The Building Before and After

Macmillan Hub – our community Arts and education building as part of the Pennywell regeneration in Edinburgh has now been fully open for a year and North Edinburgh Arts is now receiving more than 1000 visitors per week. We are very pleased to report that the project won the Development of the Year (Public buildings) category at the Scottish Property Awards in March.
The illustrations show the entrance "before" and "after".

Our work at Papple has now concluded. We hope that sometime in the not-too-distant future the current phase will be joined by the final phase of development which we have already designed. This consists of 7 more holiday apartments, an octagonal function suite / conference facility, conference bar and breakout, café, extended agricultural museum and the first floor of the library. We are happy to say that the restaurant, “Eve’s Court,” is a great success and is now open for lunch Sundays-Wednesdays and dinners Thursdays-Saturdays. The link is here
 

Following on from our much-publicised ideas for West Princes Street and East Princes Street gardens we are showing at the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition another speculative project for a centre for “Edinburgh City of Literature”, the charity  behind Edinburgh’s status as the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature. It exists to connect people to Edinburgh’s literary story, past and present, in a city where everyone can experience the joy of reading, writing and creative connection.  Twenty one years on there are now sixty three cities of literature around the world with Edinburgh at the very heart of the network. This speculative project for exhibition, lecture room, bookshop and café uses the Scott monument (the second highest monument to a writer in the world)  as the centre piece of a new semi-underground centre. Entrance to the monument would also be via the centre’s reception.

Video walk through: Here
 

A Hut for the Hutting Movement
'The prototype'

Hutting began in Scotland in the interwar years allowing workers to build a simple hut for the use of their family and friends. Reforesting Scotland’s “Thousand Huts campaign” successfully lobbied for inclusion of huts in Scottish Planning Policy in 2014, enabling a fledgling new wave of hutting in Scotland. In summary a hut is less than 30 sq. m floor area, off-grid, capable of removal and not permanently inhabited. Basically, they are trying to persuade local authorities to look favourably on planning applications for huts in the countryside which takes the pressure off the local housing market otherwise distorted by city-dwellers buying second homes.
 
We have designed a hut and are currently developing the design and actively looking for partners/investors to build a prototype. Once the site has been prepared, we anticipate that the hut arrives prefabricated and is erected in two weeks maximum. There is a theme and variation depending on the orientation of the best view to south or to the north. We would love to hear from people who would like to get involved. More details: Here
 

RSA 2026 Annual Exhibition
9th May - 14th June

Maggie's: Architecture that Cares Exhibition
 V&A Dundee
6th March to 1 November 2026

We were the architects of the first Maggie’s at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital, in 1996. Astonishingly, thirty years later, there are now 27 centres in the UK and 4 overseas with plans for more. An exhibition, “Maggie’s: Architecture that cares.”  featuring all the designs using models and videos opened at the V&A in Dundee on 5^th March. Richard attended both it and the celebratory dinner. He has also lent to the exhibition a personal letter from Lady Keswick, Maggie’s mother, written to Richard after she toured the center in 1997.

The exhibition runs from 6th March to 1 November 2026. No booking is required and further information can be found here.  

RSA Generation Exhibition
Jan - March 2026

Cockburn Association "Spring lecture"
28th April

Our Vision for Princes Street

Peter Aldington
1933-2026

Peter On Grand Designs April 2022

The pictures show the RIAS hosting the touring exhibition in 2000 and Peter talking to the office at Turn End in 2006.

A major influence on our work and a personal friend to the office, Peter Aldington passed away in April. He was 93 years and a day. Writing for the Architects Journal  Richard wrote:
 
“In 1974 I was introduced to Peter’s work via his Manchester University classmate Geoffrey Baker who taught second year at Newcastle. So intense was the thinking and detailing in his work that Geoffrey spent a whole lecture on his first house at Askett Green and then another on the Turn End project for three houses. Indeed how could you explain them in less time? A few years later visiting on an open day they way exceeded my expectations plus also there was the sheer delight of being in his wonderful garden too. Together with the project at Bledlow, Peter’s work at Turn End stands today as a lonely exemplar of how British speculative suburban housing might have been, with his organising idea of grouping houses around courtyards, private walled gardens and roof dominated house forms. They are a triumph of how housing can be both utterly contemporary in design but at the time contribute powerfully to local traditions and they sit in painful contrast to the unspeakable horrors of the standard British housing estate. Every planner and every housing developer should be compulsorily taken to see them”
.
For twelve years Richard was a trustee of Turn End and he organised and sponsored an exhibition which toured all over the UK about the houses and garden. He also midwifed a film by Murray Grigor which can be purchased here. The whole office was privileged to tour Turn End and the garden with Peter and his wife Margaret in 2006 and in 2016 he invited Peter to exhibit Turn End as his guest in the Royal Scottish Academy “Home” exhibition.