michael murphy

PA What is politics to you?

MM All architectural decisions have social and political implications, whether we acknowledge them or not. The spatial world affects us every day, affects our ability to live healthy lives, affects our environment, affects our communities, and just the simple choices of a material specification, be it brick or concrete, have implications on labour and on the environment. There’s no neutrality in design decisions. We have to build an ethical framework so that we are always gearing towards the most positive impact on our communities.

PA What did you learn from the Ebola crisis in 2014?

MM When the Ebola outbreak happened, we had already been working with Liberia’s ministry of health for a couple of years on a national infrastructure plan – and with its great prime minister, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a real hero. The government of Liberia, while wrestling with the incredible impact of the Ebola outbreak, also was saying, ‘If we’re going to get all of this emergency aid, we need to also be investing in the long-term infrastructure that we will need on the other side of this emergency.’ Our work with them began right at the outbreak. We had teams living within the government’s ministry, working