Michael Murphy with Gene Kansas and Ellen Bassett | Our World in Ten Buildings

Name: Michael Murphy with Gene Kansas and Ellen Bassett | Our World in Ten Buildings
Start: 2026-04-15T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Wrecking Bar Brewpub

Schedule

Wed, 15 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Wrecking Bar Brewpub | Atlanta, GA

From “tomorrow’s greatest designer” (The Atlantic), a personal and deeply researched look at how the choices we build into our environment reflect and determine the way we think, connect, and live.
A Cappella Books is welcomes architect, educator, and writer Michael Murphy to The Marianna Room at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub in honor of his new book, “Our World in Ten Buildings: How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live.” Murphy will appear in conversation with Atlanta-based real estate developer and historic preservationist Gene Kansas and Ellen Bassett, Dean of the College of Design at Georgia Tech.
Presented in partnership with AMMA and the Georgia Tech School of Architecture.
This event is free and open to the public; copies of the book will be available for purchase.
About the Book
We've been led to believe that purposefully designed spaces are something reserved only for those that can afford them. But in reality, all the spaces we inhabit—to work, to learn, to heal, and to live—have been planned and built to influence our lives. They sway our emotions, nudge our behaviors, protect us from disease, and do more, or less, to support shared prosperity and our sense of the common good.
“Our World in Ten Buildings” unpacks this hidden but ever more important element of our lived experience. As author and architectural designer Michael Murphy takes us through ten milestone projects in his career he lays bare the physical, political, and intellectual labor at work shaping the world we live in.
With rare insight, access, and passion, Murphy braids the history of architecture with his own iconic projects to show the power of urban design and how it revolutionizes our homes, minds, workplaces, safety, and health care. Profound, and accessible, “Our World in Ten Buildings” will change the way you
About the Author
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. In 2007, he founded the architectural non-profit firm, MASS Design Group, and was CEO until 2022, leading the design of their projects including the Butaro Hospital and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice to name a few. He is currently the Thomas Ventulett Chair of Architecture at The Georgia Institute of Technology. Originally from Poughkeepsie, New York, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.
About the Conversation Partners
Gene Kansas is an Atlanta-based real estate developer and historic preservationist renowned for spearheading the preservation of the Atlanta Daily World building in Sweet Auburn. He is also the founder of Constellations, a civic, social, and cultural workspace in the area. Kansas’s writing has appeared in Atlanta Magazine, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other publications. His work has been recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Ellen M. Bassett is the John Portman Chair and Dean of the Georgia Tech College of Design.
An urban planner by training, she previously worked as Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. She also served as the School's Associate Dean of Research and Director of the Real Estate + Design and Development program. She is the past Chair of the UVA Faculty Senate and served as the faculty representative on its Board of Visitors (AKA Regents.)
Her areas of research interest and expertise are land use planning and law, climate change/sustainability planning, health and the built environment, and international development, with a special focus on cities of the Global South. In addition to her teaching and research expertise and leadership roles in US institutions of higher education, she also has expertise and experience in international development planning and acts as a consultant to international development agencies working in Sub-Saharan Africa.