Richard Murphy Architects

Welcome to the Summer 2011 Newsletter of Richard Murphy Architects

FOUR MAJOR PROJECTS SUBMITTED FOR PLANNING PERMISSION

Anglia Ruskin Project Revealed and Submitted for Planning Permission

Anglia Ruskin University, Young Street, Cambridge

Our project for Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge has been submitted for planning permission to Cambridge City Council. The design encompasses the whole of their Young Street campus which is to be constructed in three phases. The first phase envisages teaching accommodation for the faculty of Nursing and is due to be completed by August 2013. A linear building along Young Street it is mostly brick to the north and glass to the south. Largely naturally ventilated with the ventilation chimneys forming a prominent part of the design. The inclined roof is covered in photovoltaic panels. A new webpage has been created for the project.

Edinburgh University Postgraduate Housing Project Submitted for Planning Permission

Postgraduate Housing for Edinburgh University, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh

Our project, won in competition last year for 260 postgraduate study-bedrooms on Holyrood Road has been submitted after extensive consultations. The design envisages a courtyard arrangement on two levels. All the bedrooms look outward, living rooms are generally placed at corners and circulation to flats is external with internal circulation, largely single sided and naturally lit. New drawings have been posted on the webpage.

Competition Winning Project in Whitehaven Submitted for Planning Permission.

Whitehaven Harbour Housing

Our project for 43 apartments and approx 4000sq m of offices on the waterfront at Whitehaven has been submitted to Copeland Borough Council. The project was won in an open competition against 139 other entries from around the world last November; since then the project has been refined but not substantially redesigned and an estimated start on site is early summer 2012. Magnus Homes is the client.

Designs for New Classrooms for Edinburgh Academy Junior School.

Following on from the success of the new nursery school, and in line with our long term master-plan strategy, the Academy have commissioned us to provide four new classrooms and a library/resources room on their Arboretum Road Campus.

MEANWHILE….THREE DOMESTIC PROJECTS RECEIVE PLANNING PERMISSION

Our design for a new house in North Berwick, substantial alterations to a house in Elie and another mews renovation on Calton Hill have all been given planning permission.

PROGRESS OF PROJECTS ON SITE

Social Housing, Ex-royal Infirmary, EdinburghQueens University Belfast Holyrood Postgraduate Accommodation
House at Strathaven AirfieldIvybank House, Dirleton

We have five projects on site. By far the biggest is social housing for Hillcrest Housing Association on the site of the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. The four cores are almost complete. In Belfast, our joint project with RPP Architects for postgraduate housing for Queens University continues and the main building work is now complete. At Coatbridge College the steelwork is about to be erected. Meanwhile a start on site has been made for a new house at Strathaven airfieldand the steel frame has been erected within a single week! This project is due to be broadcast on the Channel 4 Grand Designs programme. And finally work at Ivybank House, Dirleton continues with a completion later this summer.

NEW IMAGES FOR THE HAYMARKET PROPOSALS

Haymarket Redevelopment, Edinburgh-View Into AtriumHaymarket Redevelopment, Edinburgh-View Into Atrium

Our client Tiger Developments have commissioned new 3D imagery for marketing purposes and these have been included in the webpage. The project received planning permission at the end of last year.

After a pause from our point of view, the remaining design team members have been appointed, a project board has been set up and design work is expected to re-start in earnest in late Summer.

AWARDS

Readers will already know that the practice was awarded two RIBA Awards this year; one for our housing at Newhall Essex and the other for the design of two mental health and dementia centres (24 bed and 18 bed units) at Stratheden hospital in Fife. This brings our total number of RIBA awards to 19 in our nineteenth year! Meanwhile our new British High Commission was highly commended for the Bawa Award in Sri Lanka (the Sri Lankan equivalent of the Stirling Prize) against seven buildings from Sri Lankan practices.

PRESS

The RIBA Journal devoted six pages to our two projects for Fife NHS at Stratheden in a special edition focussing on care for the elderly. In her article, Penny Lewis concluded, “Murphy’s practice excels at judging the appropriate scale. There is a certain tailored quality to its buildings (particularly the housing) which one might associate with Le Corbusier or Stirling, a sensitivity to how small or large a space needs to be……In the spirit of celebrating age and experience, the wealth of experience of architects like Murphy that have a track record in producing really good homes needs to be given the weight it deserves.”

The Sunday Times of Sri Lanka devoted a major article to the new British High Commission under the tile “Stone walls Belie welcoming interior". http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110626/Plus/plus_10.html

The practice's exhibit in the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition elicited much interest not least for the presence of live fish in the 1:25 part model of the British High Commission in Colombo. Tim Cornwell in the Scotsman diary wrote, “The irrepressible Murphy is never short of ideas….but the fish take innovation to a new level”

LECTURES ETC.

Richard attended a reception at Holyrood House for the fifteenth anniversary of the Maggie’s Centre movement. The charity’s President, the Duchess of Cornwall met Richard for the second time; she opened our Podiatry Centre at the University of East London five years ago. Graeme Armet and Brian Tobin attended a ceremony in Dundee for the presentation of our RIBA award for Stratheden and Richard will be doing the same at the end of September at a dinner organised by the Eastern Region of the RIBA in Cambrdge for the RIBA award for Newhall housing in Harlow. He has also been asked to contribute to a conference on dementia care organised by the Scottish Government’s Social Care and Social Work Improvement Unit, arising from our work at Stratheden hospital.

NEW BOOK

We have signed a contract with Black Dog publishing to produce a new monograph on the practice. The publication will be 304 pages, full colour with a publication date of June 2012.

AND FINALLY….

Readers might be interested to know that Richard has climbed to new heights recently. Literally, as he flew his microlight G-RIBA to the Venice Biennale and on the way home flew over Mont Blanc at 16200ft! Here are four photographs from the trip taken by Gordon Douglas in the adjacent plane G-CGAZ: G-RIBA piloted by Richard can be seen alongside the Carrara marble quarries, in general Alpine scenery, as well as views of Venice and the summit of Mont Blanc.

Carrara Marble QuariesGeneral Alpine Scenery
VeniceMont Blanc
  
  
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