We outline a modular building block strategy for the covalent assembly of porphyrin- containing model systems. Molecular design issues for the synthesis of porphyrin dimers, dye-porphyrin dyads, and multi-porphyrin arrays have been used to guide the development of this approach. The major design constraints are to achieve directed coupling of free base and/or metalloporphyrin building blocks in dilute solution under non-acidic non-metalating ...