David Gissen

David Gissen is an author, designer, and educator based in New York City. His work challenges the manner in which architecture and urbanization instantiates concepts of physiological and biological normality, naturalness, and functionality. Much of his writing is drawn from his experiences as a disabled student, practitioner, professor, and researcher.

David has published several books and numerous essays on the above themes, including The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities and Landscapes Beyond Access (Minnesota, 2023); Manhattan Atmospheres: Architecture, the Interior Environment, and Urban Crisis (Minnesota, 2013); and Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009). His architectural and urban design work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Centre for Architecture in New York.

In addition to GSAPP, David has held faculty appointments at Yale University, MIT, the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and the California College of the Arts. He is currently a professor of architecture and urban history at the New School/Parsons School of Design.