Richard Morton is a Senior Lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA), where he leads the Infrastructure Space Atelier (https://www.msa.ac.uk/study/ateliers/infraspace/). His work spans architectural education, research, and industry engagement, with a particular focus on digital infrastructure, ethics, and the socio-spatial impacts of emerging technologies.
Richard studied architecture at MSA, completing his BA (2004), B.Arch (2007) and MA Architecture and Urbanism (2008). From 2008, he worked as an Associate Lecturer at MSA, alongside a senior role in industry, specialising in security, satellite, and mobile communication technologies. In 2016 he commenced an EPSRC‑funded PhD at Lancaster University, while continuing to teach at MSA, and was appointed to his current role as Senior Lecturer in August 2019 after completing his PhD.
During his time in industry, Richard developed a strong interest in digital networks and their transformative impacts on cities, infrastructure, and stakeholders. As Development Director of an SME, he led multidisciplinary teams delivering research and product development funded by organisations including Satellite Applications Catapult and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. This work explored the feasibility of using 3G and 4G platforms within the Emergency Services Network, with a particular focus on digital healthcare delivery in remote and rural contexts. This programme included the Satellite Ultrasound for Rural Stroke (SURS) project. Durning this time the development team was awarded the Scottish Life Sciences Award for Innovation (2015).
Richard continued this line of inquiry at MSA through research‑led teaching and externally engaged projects, including the Highlands and Islands Data Mapping and Data Mapping Cornwall projects. The latter, funded by Satellite Applications Catapult and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP, explored how increased digital connectivity might generate new spatial, social, and operational value across complex regional systems.
Richard is a member of the Advanced and Applied Architectural Research Office https://msa.ac.uk/research/a3ro/ where his research is underpinned by a sustained interest in the social and ethical implications of digital technologies. His doctoral research examined how emerging autonomous vehicle technologies were being developed and promoted in ways that marginalised certain user groups. This work combined speculative design with qualitative methods and has informed subsequent publications, exhibitions, and methodological developments.
As Lead of the Infrastructure Space Atelier, Richard has developed a stack‑based placemaking theory that recognises architecture as an interconnected system of political, economic, technological, social, ecological, spatial, and temporal layers. Through multi‑method research, including thematic data mapping, stakeholder workshops, exhibitions, and speculative design, the atelier brings together students, communities, industry, and public‑sector partners to address regional and global challenges.
Richard’s current work extends this agenda through industry‑embedded research, including the development of Industry PhDs and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, alongside a strong commitment to innovative and inclusive teaching practice. He has a particular passion for education as a transformative and collaborative endeavour, supported by extensive international teaching experience, including sustained engagement with the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), Cambodia. This has included the development of international field‑based teaching and the delivery of a UNESCO‑certified digital sustainability workshop for MMU and RUFA students, enabling cross‑cultural collaboration on questions of infrastructure, sustainability, and digital placemaking.
His teaching practice is underpinned by a PGCert in Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Higher Education and Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and is characterised by a commitment to fairness, transparency, and pedagogic experimentation. Richard led the initial development of MSA’s weighted marking system, a framework designed to support diverse pedagogic approaches across different cohorts, groups, and ateliers, while recognising the varied ways students and staff engage with learning and design processes. Together, these strands reflect an approach to teaching that values diversity of thought, supports student agency, and aligns educational delivery with the complex realities of contemporary architectural practice. To this end Richard is also an academic panel member of the University’s student complaints and appeals panel.
Current PhD Students
Polina Chizhova Wright