The son of a Procurator Fiscal of the City of Edinburgh, Donald Mill was educated at George Watson's College and Edinburgh College of Art, where he obtained his architectural degree in 1953. After graduating, he undertook National Service with the UK armed forces, in Kuala Lumpur. Following his service, Mill enrolled at the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture, completing the course in 1956. Whilst studying, he began working with Basil Spence and Partners in London and later with Michael Laird in Edinburgh 1957. He joined Denys Lasdun and Partners in London in 1962 and became an associate by 1975. During his time there, Mill contributed to major projects, including the Royal National Theatre and the IBM Building on the South Bank, London. He is also credited as designing the first climbing wall in the UK, for Lasdun’s University of Liverpool sports centre (1966). Complementing his architectural career, Mill was an accomplished photographer, documenting many of Lasdun's works, some of his work now held within the AA Archives’ photographic collections. Tragically, Mill passed away in 1981, drowning in Finishaig Burn, Loch Nevis.

Sources

• Architectural Association Members List 1961, 1979
• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box OK27, AA Archives
• ‘Donald Mill, 1931-1981.’ RIBA Journal, Vol. 88, No. 5, May 1981, p26
• Simon Philpps, ‘Brutal North: Post-war Modernist Architecture in the North of Engl, and’, September Publishing, 2020.
• George Templeman ‘In Memorium’ Alpine Journal, 1982, 261-272
• Michael Laird Architects, ‘Our History’, https://mlaarchitects.co.uk/history/ accessed 10th January, 2025.