A contemporary creator leading the way in design innovation is Sir David Adjaye, considered to be one of the most influential architects of his time. The Ghanaian-British architect’s perspective is informed directly by the cultures he has experienced firsthand. As the son of a diplomat, he has lived in Nairobi, Kampala, Beirut and London. His design education, as well as exposure to a range of cityscapes and lifestyles, was forged in studios in London; during his Japanese Buddhism courses in Kyoto and studying under Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.
In 2000, he debuted his own architecture firm Adjaye Associates that would become a collaborative space for his global visions to be realized. Their site specific and socially-driven projects include Russia’s Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, a distinctly-modern building with an imposingly artful facade, as well as the more recent crimson-concrete art center Ruby City in San Antonio, Texas. Adjaye also recently made history as the first Black to be awarded with the Royal Institute of British Architects medal in their 173-year long history.
Yet his most epic undertaking to date is the completion of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. Truly, it is a culmination of his storied life thus far. Adjaye Associates were the lead designers of the project, completed in 2016, which serves as not only a vessel to hold the history of the African American experience, but as an educational space that invites visitors to see themselves within these walls, within these stories; stories that are complex and woven with trauma.
The Museum Architect Behind D.C.’s National African American Museum of History and Culture
Sir David Frank Adjaye is an architect famously known for designing some of the most notable buildings around the world. Learn more about David Adjaye here!
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