Welcome to the Winter 2020 Richard Murphy Architects Newsletter

Filmhouse submitted for planning permission

After more than six months of pre-application consultation we can now reveal the design that has been submitted to Edinburgh City Council Planning Committee. The design has been refined since it was first revealed in March and all the new drawings, visualisations and a movie can be seen on the website. This a tremendous opportunity for an architect to add a major cultural building to Edinburgh's many historic existing examples. We believe that this project will celebrate film in a building appropriate to its artistic importance and at the same time will completely transform the use of Festival Square. We hope for a decision from the planning committee by May 2021.

Trinity College Dublin Innovation Building submitted for planning permission

Our project for Trinity College Dublin has been submitted for planning permission. The proposal is for an Innovation Hub, initiating the first phase of the development of the Grand Canal Innovation District in the 'silicon dockland' area of Dublin alongside international corporations such as Google and Facebook. It will be modelled on districts in cities like Boston, Toronto, Rotterdam and Barcelona.

The Innovation Hub is set to serve as a space for entrepreneurs, academics, early stage start-ups and innovation teams to convene and will include a new public square with a café as well as a landmark tower that dates back to 1862 when the area housed a sugar refinery.

Provost Patrick Prendergast said that Trinity is “spearheading this national project to create an innovation district in the docklands of our capital city”. Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said that he welcomes "that the first phase of the Innovation District will soon be in development...It will act as a location for Irish start-up companies with global ambition as well as attracting new sources of foreign direct investment”, he added.

Macmillan Centre, Muirhouse

A few months ago we were appointed to look at the future of the North Edinburgh Arts building in Muirhouse. The building is in the middle of an area undergoing extensive reconstruction and Edinburgh City Council have intentions of building a new library and a large Early Learning Centre for nursery schoolchildren on the adjacent site. After discussions between the two organisations, the City Council decided to ask us to expand our design to include their two buildings, and we have now designed these to be an integrated project to create synergy between all the three user groups. The project is now undergoing community consultation before an intended planning application in the New Year. More information can be seen on the new webpage.

Royal High School News

Many readers will have noted that proposals to turn the Royal High School into a hotel have failed at the Planning Appeal. Although we believe the developers can theoretically maintain their option on the building until 2022 we are hopeful that the City Council might move sooner to resolve the future of this important building. Our client, the Royal High School Preservation Trust with St Marys Music School, are primed to respond to the Council and move forward with our fully consented and fully funded project.

Greenock Ferry Terminal and George Wyllie Gallery

This project is currently out to tender with a site start expected in April 2021. More information can be found here.

Madison Lofts, Belfast

This project for refurbishing a historic shirt factory near Donegall Road has moved from public consultation and has now been submitted for a full planning and listed building consent.

Press

Trinity College's project featured prominently in the media with reportage in the Irish Times, the London Times, the University Times and the online technical press such as 'Silicon Republic'.

The Filmhouse planning application featured on BBC Scotland news, STV, the Scotsman, the Herald, the London Times, the Edinburgh Reporter, Edinburgh Live, Screen international and the Architects' Journal.

Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisted

The Italian translation of Richard Murphy's book "Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio Revisited" is now complete. Simona Manca from the Italian Institute in Edinburgh is the translator. 'Rivisitando Carlo Scarpa e Castelvecchio' will go to the printers in the New Year with a book launch estimated to be in April 2021. Simultaneously will be the second print run of the existing English language edition as only 150 copies are left from the original 3000 printed exactly three years ago. Orders for the English language book can be made here: www.breakfastmissionpublishing.com

News from The Breakfast Mission

Richard Murphy Architects share their office with other creative companies. Currently these are: Create Structural Engineers, Bonnar Keenlyside Arts Management Consultants, Laudonia and Christoph Crepaz, the Austrian Consulate. Recently the innovative industrial designers Crover Ltd have joined us and the latest news is that the last available office space has now been filled by Mike Christopherson, the Swedish Consulate in Edinburgh.

New Website

Visitors to our website will see that it has been given a very significant update and redesign. We hope you enjoy it. In 2012 the late Sir Richard MacCormac, architect and Past President of the RIBA wrote "what is formidable about the achievements of Richard Murphy Architects is the range of building types which the practice has mastered." Eight years later we hope the site demonstrates a continuation of the quality, quantity and variety of our work.

We have worked together with Kim and Graeme of Redstone Websites. on our re-designed website. They have been fantastically responsive to our evolving requirements and we are extremely happy with the end product. It is graphically a huge improvement and we believe easy to view across different platforms and easy for us to add to and vary in the future.

Christmas Greetings

And finally, we would like to wish our readers, clients, consultants, and friends a very happy Christmas and we hope that in 2021 we can all return to to a better normality.