Spring 2026

Generation Exhibition
now in it's last week at the Royal Scottish Academy

The exhibition Generation organised by Richard Murphy at the Royal Scottish Academy opened on 20^th January. Featuring 14 young practices who’s principals at one time worked in our office, it raises the idea of the architectural family tree with Richard describing how Ted Cullinan, Richard MacCormac, Isi Metzstein and Carlo Scarpa all had a direct influence on the practice’s work. Generation runs until 8^th March and admission is free. Opening hours are Monday to Saturday 10.00am to 5.00pm, Sunday 12.00 to 5.00pm. 

A panel discussion chaired by Robin Webster RSA takes place on Wednesday 4^th March at 6.00pm in the gallery.  Tickets can be booked here. 

Papple Steading, Haddington
'Eve's Court' opens for business

We are delighted that “Eve’s Court”, the restaurant at the heart of the Papple Steading redevelopment has opened for lunches and is doing a roaring trade! Booking strongly recommended and can be made here. It has also been very well reviewed by The Scotsman. The Demarco Gallery is open and the agricultural museum is well advanced. Meanwhile the joinery work of our two storey hexadecagon library is almost complete. When the rotating steel staircase which gives access to the upper shelves arrives shortly, the project will be complete. The library is designed to hold archive, books and videos of aspects of rural East Lothian life.
Images: top Evie's Court and below, part of the agricultural museum. 

We have been commissioned to design a housing development in the Highlands and these are the first two houses to be located in a forest site adjacent to a loch. 

Here are our first images of potentially a pre-fabricated solution for the house on St Helena. Further news and images to follow.

We are delighted to have been shortlisted to redevelop both the building and the exhibition for this major Scottish military museum.  The site is unusual: 6 metres wide but 60 metres long, and contains two listed buildings. 

THREE PROJECTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
OF CURRENT RELEVANCE 
(or, 'the ones that got away')

As the UK  Google Headquarters building by Thomas Heatherwick and Bjark Ingels architects at Kings Cross is completed, readers might like to know that there was, briefly, an alternative design prepared by invitation of the developer. This spread over the adjacent rail tracks and revolved around Google’s aspiration for a “big room” in the centre of their building. More pictures and diagrams of our design can be seen here. Meanwhile, the built project can be seen here.

The £86M extension designed by Amanda Levette Architects was the winning design in the selection procedure and will open later this year. Our own project in the competition can be seen above; a more low key design with an emphasis on the building acting as a new circulation edge to the existing building and relating intimately to a new hillside of walled gardens. More pictures can be viewed on our website. The winning design can be seen here.
 

We were on the competition shortlist for this engineering/IT centre in the historic Trinity College campus in Dublin. The winning design by Feilden Clegg Bradley / Coady Architects is about to open. To give it a College Green address, our project entered the building via a ramp under the existing zoology building and immediately entered an atrium around which everything  was organised. More pictures can be seen here. The almost completed building can be seen here.

National Centre for Music 
Main contract works ongoing

The project by the Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) is well underway with the 
main contract works at the former Royal High School continuing into their second month with Robertson Construction undertaking activities in numerous areas with the now enveloped existing structure, allowing continuous work to the east and west wings to reinstate lead and slate roof coverings, and period detailing such as the multiple, previously lost chimney pots, now remade by hand from the single surviving example.   As can be seen in the photograph, taken from the recently scaffolded Belvedere tower at the end of the retaining wall, the site area that will become the landscaped East Garden has also been cleared with site drainage excavation underway and existing fabric taken from demolitions and removals being carefully sorted and stored for potential reuse.

The project should go out to tender in March 2026 with a view to starting on site in September 2026.

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

A new exhibition celebrating 30 Years of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres opens at the V&A Dundee on 6th March. It is 30 years since our original Maggie’s Centre opened in 1996 and was subsequently extended in 2001 and 2014 with the most recent work there being a garden pavilion “Dot’s Den” in memory of Dot. Mickel. There are now over 30 Maggie’s centre’s throughout the UK and beyond but we remain proud to have been the first and the only centre to have had Maggie Kewsick Jencks as a client…and we like to think the best too! Richard lent a letter from Maggie’s mother Lady Keswick to the exhibition. which records her emotions when she visited in 1997.
The exhibition runs from 6th March to 1 November 2026. No booking is required and further information can be found here.  
 

Cockburn Association Spring Lecture
Tuesday 28th April 2026

The Cockburn Association have asked Richard to give their Spring Lecture at their AGM on 28th April in the Sir Walter Scott Room in the Grassmarket Centre. For the lecture, titled Three ideas which could transform the centre of Edinburgh, Richard will be talking about his most recent ideas for Edinburgh City Centre.
Tickets and further information can be obtained from the Cockburn Association.
 

Venice in Peril / 20th Century Society Lecture
copies available

On the 27th January, Richard gave a lecture jointly sponsored by Venice in Peril and the 20^th Century Society to a sell-out audience on Scarpa in Venice which he turned around to be Venice in Scarpa. Copies of the talk can be obtained from Venice in Peril here for £10.00.
 

Generation Exhibition Opening 
at the Royal Scottish Academy

A fun time was had at the opening of the exhibition of young practices who’s principals at one time worked in our office on Friday 23rd January. The event was extremely well attended.
Image: L-R shows Sonia Browse, Jordi Sanahuja, Brian Tobin, Darryl Robbin, Klas Hyllen, Andrew Brown, Richard Murphy, Craig Amy, Stewart Stevenson, Martin Lambie (at rear), Gareth Jones, Matt Loader, Ed Hollis, Will Tunnell and Kris Grant. 

'Our Story'
a slideshow of 35 years now on our website

In our office foyer sits a continual loop slide show of our major buildings and projects arranged chronologically from 1991 to the present day. However only visitors get to see it, so we have now included it permanently on our website under the link “our story” on the home page. Over 150 buildings and projects each get a single image and four seconds but the complete show lasts for just over ten minutes!