A house in the New Town designed by Richard Murphy Architects has won the accolade of RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) House of the Year. The unusual property in Hart Street is architect Richard Murpy’s own home and the house beat off strong competition to win the coveted award.
The RIBA House of the Year is awarded to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK.
‘Grand Designs: House of the Year’ returned to Channel 4 last month and featured the RIBA House of the Year 2016 longlist with the shortlist announced during the course of the series. Shortlisted projects were revealed each week and the winner announced on 15 December.
The Murphy House has already won an RIBA National Award, the Saltire Society “Best New House in Scotland” Award, a Civic Trust National Award, the Edinburgh Architectural Association “Building of the Year” and the Architects’ Journal UK “House of the Year.”
The RIBA judging panel said: “Richard Murphy’s own house in Edinburgh is a delightful essay in architecture. It speaks to its context with direct references to the Georgian terraces, and with a clever change of scale that is at once deferential and powerfully striking in the street. It makes great use of a small site, creating a delightful private outdoor space on the first floor, with light brought in through the roof, and a seemingly endless number of surprising spaces.
“It is a house that responds to the Scottish climate, opening up to the summer sun and then shutting itself down to create a snug refuge in the depth of winter. Sliding doors pull out of walls and roof shutters drop into place transforming the house from a light-filled space open to the exterior terrace, to an enclosed room, where candlelight wouldn’t seem out of place. It does all this with wit and style, in an architecture that Murphy has honed over the years to make distinct and personal. It feels an intense and personal space, playful and inventive, each corner revealing something new.
“Full of references to his architectural heroes the building could be read as homage to architectural history. Murphy has described the house as ‘a quarter Soane, a quarter Scarpa, a quarter eco-house and a quarter Wallace and Gromit, the latter referring to the various ingenious devices in the house. In fact the house is beautifully composed and uniquely his own.”
Richard Murphy said: “We celebrated our 25th birthday last month and to receive this award is a wonderful present and with such astonishing level of public interest. It’s actually our 21st RIBA award, a record unequalled in Scotland, and it takes its place in a long line of awards for buildings small and large and for a whole variety of types including domestic, educational, health, arts and a new British Embassy. It emphasizes yet again that the practice demonstrates both great versatility and consistently high quality in all its work current and past.“
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