David Porter was a student at Impington Village College from 1957-62. He then transferred to Cambridgeshire High School for Boys to take his A Levels. He is now an architect, urbanist, writer and educator based primarily in London. He is professor of architecture at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing and emeritus professor at the Glasgow School of Art having been head of the Mackintosh School of Architecture from 2000-11. From 2011-14, he was adjunct professor in the school of architecture & design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and is currently vice-president Architectural Association in London.
At CAFA, David is working with the Dean to help develop the educational approach and international profile of China's newest school of architecture in its oldest school of art. With RMIT he has been contributing to their postgraduate programme in practice-based research located in Barcelona and Ghent.
He was a partner in Neave Brown David Porter Architects working on high-density urban projects in the Netherlands that were published and exhibited in Europe, the USA and Japan. He was a founding partner and remains a consultant to Clements & Porter Architects, is a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects of Scotland and of the Royal Society of Arts.
He founded the Glasgow Urban Laboratory, a partnership between the Mackintosh School of Architecture and Glasgow City Council in 2007 and was elected as an Academician at the Academy of Urbanism and contributes a regular column on ‘Learning From Place’ to their journal.
He has been visiting professor at the Arkitektskolen i Aarhus, Denmark and has examined and been a guest critic in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Lichtenstein, Romania and Sri Lanka as well as universities in the UK.
A Piece of Advice
“Don’t be afraid to look out of the window during classes, but try to remember what you have seen”.