Michael Murphy
Founding Principal, Michael P. Murphy Studio, Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Founding Principal & Trustee Emeritus, MASS Design Group
Michael Murphy
Founding Principal, Michael P. Murphy Studio, Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Founding Principal & Trustee Emeritus, MASS Design Group
Biography
Michael P. Murphy is an architect, educator, and writer, and is the founder and president of AMMA, a design and development collaborative focused on the ways in which space shapes our minds, bodies, and communities. His new practice rethinks the role of the architect and value of design by acting as systems artists for governments, institutions, non-profits, and developers who believe spatial change is possible and urgent. AMMA's first built project, the Oceana Innovation Hub in Barbados, acts as a prototype for changing the "whole nation's educational infrastructure" in the face of climate change. Two future campuses are in production now, using the same climate-resilient, modular mass-timber system.
In 2007, he founded the architectural non-profit firm, MASS Design Group, and was CEO until 2022, leading the design of projects including the Butaro District Hospital, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, The Embrace, and The Gun Violence Memorial Project, to name a few.
Murphy is also the author of two books that bring his ideas about architecture, health, and human dignity to a broader audience. His newest book, Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live (2026), explores the powerful ways architecture shapes identity, community, and everyday life. He is also the author of The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity (2024), which examines how healthcare design can promote healing, equity, and dignity. Together, these books extend Murphy’s work beyond practice, offering a compelling case for design as a force in shaping a more just and humane world.
Murphy’s work has been featured in distinguished exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. He has been honored with numerous awards, including being named a TED Prize finalist, receiving the AIA Architecture Firm of the Year Award, being recognized as Architecture Innovator of the Year by The Wall Street Journal, and earning the Royal Institute of British Architects International Fellowship, The American Academy of Arts & Letters Award in Architecture, and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, among many others.
Murphy and his work have been featured on 60 Minutes, in a TED Talk viewed more than 1.8 million times, and on Bill Clinton’s podcast, Why Am I Telling You This? His work has also been profiled in The New York Times, The Atlantic as part of their “Tomorrow’s Greatest Inventors,” Wired, Fast Company, The Boston Globe, and many others. His own writing has been published in Harvard Design Magazine, Volume, The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Journal of Architecture, Design Observer, and Humanitas.
He has held academic appointments as the Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture at Georgia Tech University and at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Ohio State University, MIT’s School of Architecture, Cornell University, the University of Michigan, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture & Planning, Harvard University’s School of Public Health, and many more. He holds an M.Arch. from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. Murphy has keynoted and lectured for a wide range of audiences, including universities, healthcare and public health organizations, foundations, cultural institutions, design and architecture communities, and mission-driven corporate and nonprofit groups. He has spoken at numerous institutions, including The Mellon Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art’s Ambasz Institute, the International House of Japan, PopTech, and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Michael Murphy works in partnership with APB Speakers for speaking engagements worldwide.
He is from Poughkeepsie, New York, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Speaker Videos
Architecture that's built to heal | Michael Murphy
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