Prof Andrew Porter

Biography

Andrew Porter graduated with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture in 1994. His diploma project "Mechanical Landscapes" was awarded the Bannister Fletcher Medal for best Bartlett diploma project and it subsequently won the Royal Institute of British Architects Silver Medal. 

Following graduation he worked as a designer for Cook & Hawley Architects and then Christine Hawley Architects on a variety of projects.  He was project architect for the Kitagata Social Housing project built in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Kitagata was a £13m project for 107 apartments within a larger housing complex master-planned by Arata Isozaki Associates. It is widely published internationally. Other projects include a number of international competitions such a first prize winning competition for Salford University, a first prize winning competition for a Museum for Roman Antiquities in Pfaffenberg, and a shortlisted Congress Centre for the EUR district in Rome and the Federation Square Competition in Melbourne.

In 1995 Abigail Ashton and Andrew Porter collaborated on their first project together - the Petrie Museum of Egyptology in Bloomsbury, London. They were awarded Second Prize. In 1998 Ashton and Porter formally set up in practice as "Ashton + Porter" with their first built commission and have since then completed a number of residential and commercial commissions in the UK as well as prize winning competitions both nationally and abroad. 

From 2003 to 2007 Andrew Porter collaborated with Christine Hawley CBE on a numbers theoretical and competition projects as "Hawley + Porter", including funded research for Madrid City Council and the Korean Housing Association.

In 2007 Porter set up “Metamode” with Ashton, Hawley and Yang.  This collaboration in a think tank for exploring new urban models and speculative architecture in South East Asia. The group has been invited by both local government departments and developers to investigate new models for urban development in China. They primarily undertake direct commissions, funded research and invited competitions for concept and planning stages of work. They have collaborated with CABR (Chinese Academy for Building Research) who are the largest research and development institute in China. Metamode won the Hakka Museum and Culture Park in Heyuan City and, in collaboration with the Shenzhen practice UNIT, the A8 Tower in Shenzhen.

He currently continues to practice primarily as "Ashton Porter Architects”. The practice has continued to develop research through theoretical prize winning competitions and a number of award winning built commissions in the UK. His recent "Suburbanstudio" and "Cut and Fold House" have won the NLA "Don't Move Improve" Competition in 2012 and the Grand Design Extension of the year Award 2013 respectively. Their work has been widely published and exhibited. The practice has been finalist in RIBA London Awards, AJ Small Projects Award and the BD Small Project Architect of the Year.

Porter has also taught and lectured at various schools of architecture and design, he has been a visiting Professor at the Staedel Academy in Frankfurt am Maim and guest critic at SCi-Arc in Los Angeles and the Parsons New School in New York.