Martin Morrell grew up in Forster, NSW, before completing a Bachelor of Architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Five years of work in Melbourne with Lawrence Atley and Terence Carey architects was followed by a year in the office of Jean Gasquez in France and then one more year with Bureau Monnier in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Martin has also had experience teaching architecture at the Ecole d'Architecture in Nancy, France and also at the Hunter Institute of TAFE in Newcastle.