First Light Books is honored to host architect and author Michael P. Murphy — designer of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and founder of AMMA — for an evening on his new book, Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live.

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Tuesday, August 4 · First Light Books · Doors 6:00 PM · Conversation 6:30 PM · Signing to follow

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About the event

Michael P. Murphy has spent two decades proving that architecture can do more than house us: it can heal, repair, and dignify. As founding CEO of MASS Design Group, he led the design of the Butaro District Hospital in Rwanda and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery — work that earned a TED main-stage talk, a 60 Minutes profile, and The Atlantic's nod as "tomorrow's greatest designer."

His new book, Our World in Ten Buildings, walks through ten milestone projects from his own career to reveal the physical, political, and intellectual labor behind the built world, and why design belongs to all of us.

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About Michael P. Murphy

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.

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, and The Embrace, to name a few.

Michael's previous book, The Architecture of Health, traces the history of medical design and its attempt to align architecture with health outcomes. His new book, Our World in Ten Buildings, explores how buildings shape our lives and hold our stories.

He is currently the Thomas Ventulett Distinguished Chair of Architectural Design at The Georgia Institute of Technology. Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

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About the Book

We've been told that thoughtfully designed spaces are a luxury. In reality, every space we occupy was planned to influence us, swaying our emotions, nudging our behavior, protecting our health, and expanding or shrinking our sense of the common good. Braiding the history of architecture with ten of his own landmark projects, Murphy makes the case that you'll never walk through a city the same way again.

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