Background
David Adjaye was born on September 22, 1966, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, David Adjaye lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine.
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
(L-R) Laurie Lynn Stark, David Adjaye, guest and Richard Stark attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Richard Stark and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Craig Robins and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Pharrell Williams and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA
Stefano Tonchi, Teresita Fernandez, and David Adjaye speak at Design Miami 2011 Design Talk hosted by W Magazine & moderated by Stefano Tonchi at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 1, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Source: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images North America)
2011
1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA
Stefano Tonchi, Teresita Fernandez, and David Adjaye speak at Design Miami 2011 Design Talk hosted by W Magazine & moderated by Stefano Tonchi at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 1, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Source: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images North America)
2013
7002, 3 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065, United States
David Adjaye attends Maiyet Varanasi Silk Capsule Collection Private Dinner Hosted By Barney's at Consulate General Of India on May 9, 2013 in New York City. (May 8, 2013 - Source: Brad Barket/Getty Images North America)
2013
7002, 3 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065, United States
David Adjaye(L) and Christina Amanpour attends Maiyet Varanasi Silk Capsule Collection Private Dinner Hosted By Barney's at Consulate General Of India on May 9, 2013 in New York City. (May 8, 2013 - Source: Brad Barket/Getty Images North America)
2017
Miami, FL, USA
Chrome Hearts co-founder Laurie Lynn Stark and architect David Adjaye attend the opening of the new Chrome Hearts Gallery & Cafe to celebrate their 3-Year Anniversary in the Miami Design District on December 5, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2018
Accra, Ghana
David Adjaye, Prof. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Director, Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Samuel Acquaah, Head of Education, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Nana Oforiatta Ayim talk during a tour of Christiansborg Castle on November 3, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. Built in the 17th Century, Christiansborg Castle originally operated as a Danish slave trade.fort. (Source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe)
2018
Accra, Ghana
David Adjaye, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Member of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales talk during a tour of Christiansborg Castle on November 3, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. Built in the 17th Century, Christiansborg Castle originally operated as a Danish slave trade.fort. (Source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe)
2007
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, UK
Order of the British Empire, United Kingdom
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
(L-R) Laurie Lynn Stark, David Adjaye, guest and Richard Stark attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Richard Stark and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
David Adjaye attends the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Craig Robins and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
191 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137, USA
Pharrell Williams and David Adjaye attend the Designer of the Year Dinner hosted by Chrome Hearts + Design Miami at Art Basel at Moore Building on December 2, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2011
1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA
Stefano Tonchi, Teresita Fernandez, and David Adjaye speak at Design Miami 2011 Design Talk hosted by W Magazine & moderated by Stefano Tonchi at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 1, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Source: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images North America)
2011
1901 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA
Stefano Tonchi, Teresita Fernandez, and David Adjaye speak at Design Miami 2011 Design Talk hosted by W Magazine & moderated by Stefano Tonchi at the Miami Beach Convention Center on December 1, 2011 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Source: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images North America)
2013
7002, 3 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065, United States
David Adjaye attends Maiyet Varanasi Silk Capsule Collection Private Dinner Hosted By Barney's at Consulate General Of India on May 9, 2013 in New York City. (May 8, 2013 - Source: Brad Barket/Getty Images North America)
2013
7002, 3 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065, United States
David Adjaye(L) and Christina Amanpour attends Maiyet Varanasi Silk Capsule Collection Private Dinner Hosted By Barney's at Consulate General Of India on May 9, 2013 in New York City. (May 8, 2013 - Source: Brad Barket/Getty Images North America)
2015
500 17th St, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA
Alejandro Aravena (L) and David Adjaye during Pritzker Architecture Prize 2015 at New World Symphony on May 15, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. (May 14, 2015 - Source: John Parra/Getty Images North America)
2016
177 Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002, USA
Ashley Adjaye, Roksanda Ilincic, and David Adjaye attend MATCHESFASHION.COM x Roksanda Dinner at Le Turtle on October 27, 2016 in New York City. (Oct. 26, 2016 - Source: Getty Images/Getty Images North America)
2017
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, UK
Adjaye was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to architecture.
2017
Westminster, London SW1A 1AA, UK
Sir David Adjaye poses after he was Knighted by the Duke of Cambridge during an Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on May 12, 2017 in London, England. (May 11, 2017 - Source: WPA Pool/Getty Images Europe)
2017
Miami, FL, USA
Chrome Hearts co-founder Laurie Lynn Stark and architect David Adjaye attend the opening of the new Chrome Hearts Gallery & Cafe to celebrate their 3-Year Anniversary in the Miami Design District on December 5, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North America)
2018
Accra, Ghana
David Adjaye, Prof. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Director, Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Samuel Acquaah, Head of Education, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Nana Oforiatta Ayim talk during a tour of Christiansborg Castle on November 3, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. Built in the 17th Century, Christiansborg Castle originally operated as a Danish slave trade.fort. (Source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe)
2018
Accra, Ghana
David Adjaye, Nana Oforiatta Ayim, Member of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales talk during a tour of Christiansborg Castle on November 3, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. Built in the 17th Century, Christiansborg Castle originally operated as a Danish slave trade.fort. (Source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe)
2018
39 E 58th St, New York, NY 10022, USA
David Adjaye attends Heidi Klum's 19th Annual Halloween Party presented by Party City and SVEDKA Vodka at LAVO New York on October 31, 2018 in New York City. (Source: Mike Coppola/Getty Images North America)
David Adjaye
103 Borough Rd, London SE1 0AA, UK
Upon graduating from a BA in Architecture from London South Bank University in 1990, David Adjaye was nominated for the RIBA President's Medals, and won the RIBA Bronze Medal for the best design project produced at BA level worldwide.
Kensington Gore, Kensington, London SW7 2EU, UK
He graduated with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art.
(A dazzling tour of fifteen contemporary houses designed b...)
A dazzling tour of fifteen contemporary houses designed by David Adjaye, one of the most influential architects of his generation Houses or domestic buildings are often among the first projects young architects design. For David Adjaye, such early commissions connected him to a rising generation of creators with whom he shared a range of sensibilities. His artistry, clever use of space, and inexpensive, unexpected materials resulted in many innovative and widely published houses. After fifteen years of practice and a raft of high-profile projects around the world―including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC―houses represent a smaller portion of Adjaye’s work but are more potent as a result. Selecting projects that are challenging because of their sites, complexity, or architectural possibility, Adjaye has both expanded and sharpened his domestic design, taking it in new directions and to new locations. This monograph presents the fifteen finest and most recent examples, from Africa to Brooklyn, from desolate farmlands to urban jungles. Chronicled through informed descriptions and detailed and photographically rich visual documentation, the results testify to the importance of Adjaye’s growing inventiveness and provide powerful ideas for residential architecture.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/050034325X/?tag=2022091-20
(Made from quotidian materials, Kingelez’s sculptures evok...)
Made from quotidian materials, Kingelez’s sculptures evoke visionary architectures The sculptures of Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015) are imagined architectural propositions and improbable structures for a fairytale urban landscape. Comprised of paper, commercial packaging and the stuff of everyday life, his “extreme maquettes” transform these materials into fantastic visions that encompass civic buildings, public monuments and private pavilions. Born in the Belgian Congo, Kingelez gained international renown following his participation in the landmark 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle of the Parc de la Villette, and since that time, his work has been included in numerous global surveys and in several solo presentations. Published to accompany the first retrospective of his work, this volume traces the span of Kingelez’s three decade career, from never-before-exhibited early works to sculptures that launched his career in 1989 and the complex and multifaceted cities of later decades, bringing his rarely seen, distinctive oeuvre to international audiences. Featuring stunning new photography of his work, this serves as the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1633450546/?tag=2022091-20
(Constructed Narratives brings together essays and several...)
Constructed Narratives brings together essays and several recently completed buildings by David Adjaye, in the United States and elsewhere. In the essays, Adjaye shows how his approach to the design of temporary pavilions and furniture, private houses, and installations at the 2015 Venice Biennale feeds into his designs for public buildings. Other essays discuss his engagement with geography, the urban environment, his approach to materiality, and architectural types. The presented projects include two public libraries and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, all in Washington D.C., a residential mixed-use building in New York, and a hybrid art-retail building in Beirut. Two of Adjaye’s current projects are also included.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3037785179/?tag=2022091-20
(A complete overview of architecture in fifty-three Africa...)
A complete overview of architecture in fifty-three African cities, seen through the eyes and images of one of the world’s leading young architects Educated in England, David Adjaye’s lifelong dream was to return to Africa as an architect to document the continent’s built environment. Over a decade, he tirelessly documented these dynamic, colorful cities, photographing thousands of buildings, sites, and public spaces, and letting each building speak for itself. The result was a stunning seven-volume work that has become an essential resource for all those interested in the burgeoning continent. The fifty-three cities featured in this remarkable study are grouped according to the terrain in which they are set: the Maghreb (north Africa); Desert; Sahel (the semi-arid transitional region between the Sahara and the south); Forest; Savannah and Grassland; and Mountain and Highveld. Each metropolis is illuminated by a concise urban history, maps, and satellite imagery, along with the dozens of photographs Adjaye has taken with an architect’s eye. This compact edition selects the highlights from over 4,000 buildings and places captured for the initial seven-volume work. The result is one of the most original, ambitious, and important architectural publications of our time. 700+ photographs in color
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500343160/?tag=2022091-20
(Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture challenges tra...)
Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between art and architecture. From 2008 through 2010, David Adjaye, along with Marc McQuade, taught three studios at the Princeton School of Architecture. Each studio focused on a collaboration with three distinguished artists―Matthew Ritchie, Teresita Fernández, and Jorge Pardo―on interventions in three vastly different sites: the state of New Jersey, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, and the city of Mérida in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Through an exploratory process of questioning, developing, and testing, each architect and artist reexamines the expectations traditionally associated with the conventions of architectural design and representation. Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture presents recent projects from David Adjaye, Matthew Ritchie, Teresita Fernández, and Jorge Pardo, along with interviews, essays, and archival material that unpack the shared space of art and architecture.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/303778282X/?tag=2022091-20
(A compendium of work by one of the most exciting and acco...)
A compendium of work by one of the most exciting and accomplished young architects to emerge on the international scene in many years. David Adjaye's practice combines material inventiveness, creative clients, and modest budgets to produce a refined and comprehensive body of work. Adjaye was born in Tanzania, and his wide-ranging education, both cultural and formal, has allowed him to respond deftly to wildly differing projects, from urban contexts to elegant pastoral retreats. The innovation in Adjaye's career is exemplified in his residential works for a wide variety of clients and budgets. Perhaps his best known projects are the houses he has created in a range of settings for people such as artist Chris Ofili and actor Ewan MacGregor, some of which have never been published. This book is Adjaye's first monograph, and it documents thirteen of his most important projects, presented through descriptions, detailed plans, and photographs. There is also a series of "portfolios," visual essays that highlight the tactile, luminous, and luxurious nature of Adjaye's work, and a reference section. 430 illustrations, 162 in color.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500342059/?tag=2022091-20
(Making a Museum in the 21st Century addresses some of the...)
Making a Museum in the 21st Century addresses some of the most pressing issues for museums in a new era of popularity and audience engagement. Over the past decade, spectacular buildings and increased attendance have been accompanied by increased expectations for museums to create new ways for visitors to interact with art. Against a backdrop of large demographic shifts and geopolitical shuffles resulting in rapid museum growth in Asia and the Middle East, museums around the world face new opportunities and challenges. This book brings together the perspectives of prominent museum leaders, directors, curators, architects and artists such as David Adjaye, Melissa Chiu (the Hirshhorn), Adam Lerner (MCA Denver), Glenn Lowry (MoMA), Walid Raad (Cooper Union), Hiroshi Sugimoto and others.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692277633/?tag=2022091-20
(An in-depth presentation of an important contribution to ...)
An in-depth presentation of an important contribution to New York residential architecture. Considered one of the most important architects of his generation, David Adjaye is lauded for high-profile buildings such as the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, and the recent competition-winning design for the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Designed and built over five years for the contemporary art collector Adam Lindemann, 77E77 was conceived as a sophisticated response to the specific site and the culturally rich neighborhood. The result is a spatially complex series of interlocking spaces, providing suitable rooms for both the challenging art collection it houses and a young and growing family. With 77E77 Adjaye has made a fresh and successful contribution to the history of the modern home in New York: a house for our new generation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847835081/?tag=2022091-20
(A graduate of London's Royal College of Art, David Adjaye...)
A graduate of London's Royal College of Art, David Adjaye formed Adjaye Associates in 2000, with a multicultural design team dedicated to an international perspective. Adjaye's early residential designs critiqued the Victorian streets around them, and also focused on the society-building aspects of city life public buildings, commemorative spaces and urban gathering places for children. More recently Adjaye has conducted important research into African architecture, and collaborated with Chris Ofili on installations that unite Ofili's paintings with Adjaye's explorations of light and space. Output showcases some 25 designs and includes revealing interviews with Adjaye and Aureliusz Kowalczyk.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4887063113/?tag=2022091-20
David Adjaye was born on September 22, 1966, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, David Adjaye lived in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon before moving to Britain at the age of nine.
Upon graduating from a BA in Architecture from London South Bank University in 1990, David Adjaye was nominated for the RIBA President's Medals, and won the RIBA Bronze Medal for the best design project produced at BA level worldwide. He graduated with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art.
Adjaye worked at a few architectural firms while still in school before partnering with William Russell to form Adjaye and Russell in 1994. He started Adjaye Associates in 2000.
Adjaye’s early design projects included retail establishments, restaurants. studios, and private residences. His work expanded to include large-scale public buildings, such as the Idea Stores (2004, 2005)—library–community-centre hybrids that he designed in two London neighbourhoods—the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo (2005), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver (2007), and the Moscow School of Management (2010). That Adjaye was selected to work on such prominent projects at a relatively young age was unusual in the architectural world. He won his most prestigious commission to date in 2009, when he was chosen from a field of respected architects to design the new home of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (2016), in Washington, D.C. Later in 2009, affected by global economic recession, he was forced to restructure his firm and its debt, but he emerged stronger than before.
Although his designs may share some common elements, they tend to differ widely in scope and appearance, because they are inspired by the specific parameters of the physical space to be occupied and the intended function of the building. Elektra House and Dirty House (2000 and 2002, respectively, both in London)—two of the most well-known examples of the private residences he designed—had dark exteriors, were stark and modernistic, and provided the perfect milieu for the artists who lived in them. His Idea Stores were light, airy spaces that were infused with a sense of vibrancy and were designed to draw the community in. Adjaye’s winning design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture was inspired by Yoruban art and architecture and showcased the trajectory of the African American experience against the backdrop of other Washington, D.C., monuments and museums.
In the midst of designing, Adjaye found time over the course of more than a decade (1999–2010) to travel to the capital of every African country, photographing each city. His images were published as a seven-volume set, Adjaye Africa Architecture: A Photographic Survey of Metropolitan Architecture (2011; also published as African Metropolitan Architecture). He also authored or coauthored several other publications, including David Adjaye: Houses: Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding (2005), David Adjaye: Making Public Buildings: Specificity, Customization, Imbrication (2006), David Adjaye: A House for an Art Collector (2011), and David Adjaye: Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture (2012).
In 2015 he was commissioned to design a new home for the Studio Museum in Harlem. He was part of the team that designed the Petronia City project in the heart of Nana Kwame Bediako's Wonda World Estates 2000-acre mixed-use city development project, catering to the fast-growing oil and gas and mining sectors in the Western Region of Ghana.
Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye was on display at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 2015 to January 2016. In March 2018 Adjaye Associates’ designs for the National Cathedral of Ghana was unveiled by Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Adjaye currently holds a Visiting Professor post at Princeton University School of Architecture. He was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and was the Kenzo Tange Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
(A complete overview of architecture in fifty-three Africa...)
(Made from quotidian materials, Kingelez’s sculptures evok...)
(A dazzling tour of fifteen contemporary houses designed b...)
(A graduate of London's Royal College of Art, David Adjaye...)
(Making a Museum in the 21st Century addresses some of the...)
(Constructed Narratives brings together essays and several...)
(The architecture and built environment of African cities ...)
(A compendium of work by one of the most exciting and acco...)
(Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture challenges tra...)
(An in-depth presentation of an important contribution to ...)
Adjaye’s travels as a child allowed him to develop a heightened degree of cultural sensitivity and exposed him to a variety of architectural styles, which he has cited as being influences on his approach to design. That his youngest brother needed the use of a wheelchair was also an influence, as it caused Adjaye to contemplate what he called the “social responsibility” of architecture.
Quotations:
"Buildings are deeply emotive structures which form our psyche. People think they're just things they maneuver through, but the makeup of a person is influenced by the nature of spaces."
"Buildings for me represent opportunities of agency, transformation, and storytelling. They are not just artifacts. There is this big tradition of buildings-as-artifacts - constructed artifacts - but for me they are these incredible sites of negotiation."
"I'm totally into architecture for all strata of society. High design should not just be for rich people."
"For me, architecture is a social act."
"Context is so important, not to mimic but to become part of the place. I wanted a building that acknowledges its surroundings."
"I got into architecture because I was searching for a way to produce in the world. I went to art school and thought I would do it through art, but I realized very quickly that I was interested in the social ramifications of form making. So buildings became the vehicle and fulfilled that thing. That satisfied me when I produced them. I decided this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life."
"The thing about architecture is that it's an art [you] simply learn more by doing more. It's one of those things that is really not an art about thinking, but doing. So in a way, what it has done is greatly intensify the way that I build."
"If you just live in New York and you only know New York, you know a certain kind of condition of formality and informality. By being able to go to another context and to be able to use that as a counter foil to the context you know, you are about to see a wider range."
"In some conditions, the architecture of textile is more relevant than in other conditions or the opacity of the material form. Pattern in the world of scarce materiality and a hybridity becomes a way of creating a new authenticity. Sometimes there is a certain kind of nobility of a group of materials literally of the earth, which had a certain nobility of presence, but is very different from the materials we have now."
"The museum in D.C. is really a narrative museum - the nature of a people and how you represent that story. Whereas the Studio Museum is really a contemporary art museum that happens to be about the diaspora and a particular body of contemporary artists ignored by the mainstream. The Studio Museum has championed that and brought into the mainstream. So the museums are like brothers, but different."
"The first 10 years, I was just building just to understand what I was doing and I didn't trust my intuition to just produce. Then, in the last five years, I have really been reflecting on what I am producing and what it is doing."
David is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and also serves as member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the LSE Cities Programme.
Physical Characteristics: David Adjaye is bald, his eyes are brown.
In 2014, Adjaye married business consultant Ashley Shaw-Scott.