Catherine Murphy is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Architecture at
Columbia GSAPP, where she teaches Healthier Building Materials. Trained
as an artist and designer, Catherine is dedicated to making physical
spaces healthier for everyone. Passionate about renovation and re-use,
Catherine’s designs respond to the history of the place and the client,
rather than adhering to a signature style. Her practice is rooted in craft,
making, and the inherent potential of materials in their purest and healthiest
states. Her current research explores re-use and repair and stories of place
through the lens of textiles.
Catherine shares her expertise in healthier building materials at a number
of leading design schools. She is a Senior Researcher at Parsons Healthy
Materials Lab where she has led educational programming for five years.
She also teaches at The New School, from where she holds a Master of
Fine Art in Interior Design, and she holds an undergraduate degree
specializing in Embroidery from the University of Ulster, Belfast . She is
from Sligo in the west of Ireland.