Born in 1961, Corner received a Bachelor's degree with first class honors in 1983 at Manchester Metropolitan University in England.
Corner began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 where he taught courses in media and theory, as well as design studios.
He has also served as a visiting professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1998 and at the KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, Sweden in 1999.
Corner argues that it is an approach that focuses on process rather than a style and that it marks a productive attitude toward indeterminacy, open-endedness, inter-mixing, and cross-disciplinarity.
In 1996, Corner received the G. Holmes Perkins Award for "distinguished and innovative teachings and methods of instruction in design".