John and Phyllis Murphy

John and Phyllis Murphy were architects in Australia. Phyllis was also known for her work with wallpaper design and restoration.

The Murphys completed a number of conservation projects through the National Trust (Victoria) in the 1960s and 1970s. Their most notable design work was created during the 1950s, some examples of which are in their home city, Melbourne, including the 1956 Olympic pool.

John Murphy died in 2004.

John Murphy was born in 1920, son of prominent Melbourne architect Gordon Murphy. Phyllis née Slater, was born in 1924, the daughter of Arthur Slater. She was one of only two women who graduated as architects from the University of Melbourne in 1949, having topped her fourth year in 1948.Following the completion of their studies in Architecture, the two collaborated and set up a private practice of their own, a year before they married in 1950. After the success of the 1956 Olympic pool design, with colleagues Kevin Borland, Peter McIntyre and engineer Bill Erwin, the couple's business turned to residential commissions, but soon grew to involve the design of commercial and school buildings. Of their early residential work, Phyllis Murphy has written; "we started our architectural practice when there were severe shortages of building materials, manpower and finance... Despite these restraints, the immediate post-war period was marked by optimism and resilience... The houses we designed were influenced by a... visit to Sweden where living spaces were small but the buildings had a simplicity that we found fresh and elegant."

Their houses, like those of Kevin Borland and others, were all "vivid and improvisatory in structure, coloration and materials. They spoke of austerity and limited means, lingering from the depression and the 1940s, and reasserted another Melbourne tendency, making big architectural gestures with limited finances and dimensions." Architect and friend Neil Clerehan has described their houses as modest, "but their version of contemporary design was elegant and timeless."

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