New Filmhouse architect wants Edinburgh to follow Manchester in shaping its future

The new £50 Filmhouse would be built on Festival Square, between the Usher Hall and the Sheraton Grand Hotel, if it approved by councillors.

The creator of Edinburgh’s new £50 million “film temple” has urged the city to follow how Manchester dealt with the aftermath of an IRA bombing to help shape the future look of the city by “taking risks” embracing modern architecture and allowing new buildings to “pierce” its historic skyline.

Richard Murphy said Edinburgh had become riddled with “incredibly bland” buildings designed to ape or mimic its historic landscape, which had been allowed to spread around the city like cancer.

The award-winning Edinburgh architect, whose vision for a new 11-storey home for the Filmhouse has had a mixed reception, claims the city suffers from a lack of “forward-thinking, planning and leadership” which have made it more difficult to get contemporary architecture approved.

He was speaking in an online debate weeks before plans are due to be lodged for the 121 ft tall Filmhouse building - which would be higher than the Sheraton Grand Hotel and the Usher Hall.

Richard Murphy is one of Edinburgh's most successful modern-day architects.

Mr Murphy said Edinburgh was still suffering from the legacy of “terrible” architecture approved decades ago.

He added: “The pendulum has backwards and forwards rather violently in Edinburgh.“Some terrible things happened here in the 1960s and 1970s, there is no question about it, both in the city centre and on the edge of the city.

"Throughout Britain, and in extremis in Edinburgh, there was a collapse in confidence in architecture and architects and we became a branch of the criminal classes - the people who have spoiled everything, basically.

"I remember Oliver Barratt, who used to run the Cockburn Association, once said that when building on Castle Terrace was finished that Edinburgh would shortly be finished. By a strange quirk of the English language, finished means two things - it means dead as well as complete.

“We have to find ways of the city continuing and yet not disrupting what we enjoy about history.

“That is the big debate in Edinburgh. My honest opinion is that at the moment the pendulum has swung back and it is much more difficult to get new architecture past the planning committee. There is a general conservatism. That's my experience.”