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Sir David Adjaye Architect

Buildings + Designs by Adjaye/Associates, London, England, UK Design Studio

post updated 12 April 2024

Sir David Adjaye Architecture News

Sir David Adjaye News

30 Sep 2020
Sir David Adjaye OBE to receive 2021 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture

photo © Alex Fradkin
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announce that Sir David Adjaye will receive the 2021 Royal Gold Medal, one of the world’s highest honours for architecture:
RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture 2021

22 Sep 2019
Abrahamic Family House Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

image courtesy of architects
Abrahamic Family House Abu Dhabi
The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity has come together for a global gathering at the New York Public Library in which they shared with stakeholders their mission to progress a culture of mutual respect and dialogue across all backgrounds, beliefs and nationalities.

Nov 30, 2018
130 William Skyscraper, Manhattan, New York, USA

image : Binyan
130 William Skyscraper Building
Lightstone, one of the largest and most diversified privately held real estate companies in the United States, is developing 130 William, a new luxury high-rise tower located in lower Manhattan.

Feb 19, 2018
SPYSCAPE Museum, 928 8th Avenue, New York City, NY, USA

image : Scott Frances for SPYSCAP
SPYSCAPE Museum Building
The spy headquarters allows visitors to deeply engage with the practice of espionage today. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the program for the 60,000 ft, three-level museum includes a world-class black glass bar, flexible event spaces, and a rare bookstore.

Dec 16, 2017
130 William Downtown Manhattan, New York City, USA

rendering Courtesy of Lightstone
130 William New York City
Lightstone, one of the largest and most diversified privately held real estate companies in the United States, and Adjaye Associates, the world-renowned architecture firm founded by Sir David Adjaye, announce 130 William, a luxury condominium building located in downtown Manhattan.

24 Oct 2017
National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, London, England, UK
Winning Design: Adjaye Associates / Ron Arad Architects / Gustafson Porter + Bowman

image © Adjaye Associates and Ron Arad Architects
National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London Winners
After an international architectural competition, with 92 entries in total, Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman were selected unanimously as the winning team, by a Jury including the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Mayor of London, the Chief Rabbi, experts from architecture, art and design, and both first and second generation Holocaust survivors.

Sep 28, 2017
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, NY, USA
Design: David Adjaye Architect with Cooper Robertson

image from architects office
Studio Museum in Harlem Building
The historic groundbreaking for the Museum’s new building will take place during the 50th anniversary year of 2018.

17 Jul 2017
Landmark 5 Strand, The Strand, London, England

image courtesy of architects
Landmark 5 Strand by Adjaye/Associates
The internationally acclaimed architecture practice has been appointed by development manager Alchemi Group, on behalf of investment firm BlackRock, Inc. to redevelop the site situated at 5 Strand with a 158,000 sq. ft mixed use development.

12 May 2017
Sir David Adjaye receives his knighthood on behalf of HM Queen Elizabeth II

image courtesy of PA

Sir David Adjaye received his award from Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at an official Investiture ceremony held at Buckingham Palace.

The knighthood follows two previous royal awards received by Sir David – the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours in October 2016 and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2007.

Sir David said: “I am deeply honoured and delighted to have received a knighthood for my contribution to architecture, and absolutely thrilled to be recognised for a role that I consider a pleasure to be able to undertake. I would like to thank Her Majesty the Queen for this incredible privilege, which I see as a celebration of the potential architecture has to effect positive social change”.

image courtesy of PA

The knighthood crowns a memorable 12 months for the architect, who celebrated his 50th birthday in September 2016 and at the same time completed the largest project in his career to date – the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture on Washington DC’s National Mall. He was named one of 2017’s most influential people by TIME magazine and became a new Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts.

The past year has also seen Sir David’s firm Adjaye Associates win a host of industry awards and high-profile commissions. Most recently, the practice was shortlisted to design the UK’s National Holocaust Memorial and revealed plans for One Berkeley, a mixed-use scheme situated on London’s iconic Piccadilly.

David Adjaye joins only a handful of architects to have been knighted – among them Norman Foster (1990), Richard Rogers (1991), Michael Hopkins (1995), Nicholas Grimshaw (2002), Peter Cook (2007) and David Chipperfield (2010).

World-renowned British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye was honoured today with a knighthood for his services to architecture as part of the Queen’s biannual honours programme.

photograph courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop and 303 Gallery, NY

David Adjaye studied architecture at LSBU, before training with renowned architects David Chipperfield and Eduardo Souto De Moura. He founded his own architecture practice at the age of just 28 – since when he has built a global reputation for excellence in design and his innovative signature style of architecture which is sometimes described as ‘sculpting with light’.

More online shortly.

25 April, 2017

Sir David Adjaye named as TIME 100 icon

Sir David Adjaye has been named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world – and is the only architect on the 2017 list.

17 Mar 2017
Royal Academy of Arts, London, announces election of David Adjaye as a new Royal Academician

The Royal Academy of Arts has elected the internationally renowned architect Sir David Adjaye and artist Gilbert & George as new Royal Academicians following a recent General Assembly.

Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy, said “David Adjaye joins us at a time when the Royal Academy architects currently comprise a more distinguished group than at any time in its long history. I’m delighted to welcome Gilbert & George to the Royal Academy; the election of two people as one artist member is the first of its kind in the history of the Academy.”

Architect David Adjaye – new Royal Academician : Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK

11 Jan 2017
Architect David Adjaye among LSBU alumni honoured in New Year

11th January 2017 – Distinguished international architect and London South Bank University (LSBU) alumnus David Adjaye is to become Sir David Adjaye after being awarded a knighthood for services to architecture in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2017.

He can now add KCVO to the OBE he was awarded in 2007 and the Queen’s Birthday Honours he received in October 2016. Adjaye tops a list of five LSBU alumni, visiting professors and honorary graduates to be honoured by the Queen in 2017:

· Vera Baird QC – Dame Commander of British Empire, Visiting Professor of Law at LSBU;
· Sir Cyril Chantler – Knight Grand Cross of British Empire, awarded Honorary Doctor of Science, LSBU (1999);
· Cecilia Anim – CBE, LSBU Alumna (1994);
· Joe Baden – CBE, Honorary Fellow of LSBU, (awarded 2009);
· Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent – OBE Visiting Professor of Midwifery.

David Adjaye said, “I see this not as a personal celebration, but as a celebration of the vast potential – and responsibility – for architecture to effect positive social change, that we as architects have to bring something positive to the world.”

“I am proud to continue to work in service of this mission as a global cultural ambassador for the UK.”

Rivington Place building in London:

photo © Nick Weall

Local London landmarks designed by Adjaye include the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, which aims to encourage disadvantaged young people to pursue careers in architecture and urban design. He collaborated with David Chipperfield on designs for the flagship Idea Store in Whitechapel, in the heart of London’s East End and helped transform an old timber factory in Shoreditch into the minimalist ‘Dirty House’ – home to artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster.

David Adjaye’s high-profile international projects include the Moscow School of Management, Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington DC, Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo.

His firm, Adjaye Associates, is currently involved in plans for a major new art museum in the Latvian capital Riga and a children’s cancer treatment centre in Rwanda.

3 Aug 2016

David Adjaye Associates News Archive

NMAAHC Building Opening

The Dedication and Grand Opening of the National Museum of African American History & Culture will take place on September 24, 2016.

The design is by Freelon Adjaye Bond / SmithGroup for client the Smithsonian Institution.

Saturday, September 24, 2016, 1:00pm – 6:00pm
Sunday, September 25, 2016, 10:00am – 10:00pm

National Museum of African American History and Culture Building

Childrens Cancer Center in Gahanga, Rwanda, Africa:

11 Jan 2014
‘CNN Ones to Watch’ with British architect David Adjaye

“There’s no such thing as a perfect building”

David Adjaye names Nigerian Kunlé Adeyemi and Vietnamese Vo Trong Nghia as his ‘Ones to Watch’

CNN programme also features world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind

Video with architect David Adjaye of Adjaye/Associates

CNN International’s monthly programme ‘CNN Ones to Watch’ shines a light on up-and-coming creative talent set to be the next big names in culture and the arts.

In January, the show is dedicated to architecture, and is fronted by British architect David Adjaye, the man behind the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in the US.

Adjaye tells ‘CNN Ones to Watch’: “There are many buildings in the world that are great. And they’re great and they have their limits. I think what is very exciting is that there’s no such thing as a perfect building. It’s actually continually evolving, and I think that’s what’s really exciting.”

The show also receives insight from Daniel Libeskind, the world-renowned, New York-based architect who was chosen as master planner of the World Trade Center redevelopment after 9/11.

Libeskind tells the programme: “Architects are obsessed. Everything they see and do has to do with construction, and everything in our world is constructed… by 2050 I think 75 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities. So the cities cannot just build more boxes and more of the same.”

The two architects chosen by Adjaye are creating buildings for growing populations, taking into account the needs of the environment and sustainability. ‘CNN Ones to Watch’ travels to Africa, Europe, Vietnam and Singapore to meet emerging architects Kunlé Adeyemi and Vo Trong Nghia as they create and showcase their work throughout the episode.

Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi shows ‘CNN Ones to Watch’ one of his major projects in the community of Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria, where he has focused on building on and around water. “Nearly 70 per cent of the world capital cities are by water. And with the impact of urbanisation, growth in these areas, merged with the issues of climate change, how do we develop these growing urbanisms around water?” Adeyemi asks.

Architect David Adjaye reveals why he feels Adeyemi’s work is important in Makoko, telling ‘CNN Ones to Watch’: “All the criticisms of shanty towns are valid, but what you can’t level against it is its ability to respond to a human condition which is to create habitation.”

‘CNN Ones to Watch’ travels with Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia, as he is shortlisted for Building of the Year 2014 at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore. Adjaye tells the programme one of the reasons he picked Vo Trong Nghia: “Lots of people place trees around you, but he incorporates it into the DNA of the architecture. If you strip the nature out of his architecture, you strip the architecture.”

Vo Trong Nghia believes that bamboo is the steel of the 21st century: ‘”In a tropical country we have a lot of bamboo…it’s low cost, and if you use the bamboo you have a really elegant place that you cannot see by timber or steel or concrete.”

‘CNN Ones to Watch’ airs at the following times on CNN International

David Adjaye Architecture

New photos from 8 Apr 2013:

House in Islington, north east London, UK

pictures © Vincenzo Barilari

New photos from 12 Nov 2012:

White Cube Gallery, Hoxton Square, east London, UK

pictures © Adrian Welch
Hoxton Square

11 + 1 Aug 2012

Tate Liverpool Pavilion

David Adjaye Tate Liverpool Design

DOUG AITKEN AND DAVID ADJAYE COLLABORATE TO DESIGN A PAVILION FOR TATE LIVERPOOL

American artist Doug Aitken and British architect David Adjaye have collaborated for the first time to design a pavilion that will be installed outside Tate Liverpool on the city’s historic Albert Dock as part of the Sky Arts Ignition Series, which will go on show from 15 September 2012 – 13 January 2013. Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken The Source will be part of the seventh Liverpool Biennial. The circular building will be located immdeiately west of Tate Liverpool.

Doug Aitken Pavilion, Tate Liverpool:

images © Adjaye/Associates

Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken
The Source is the artist¹s first public realm installation in the UK and features filmed conversations with some of the world¹s leading creative figures. Participants of all ages and backgrounds, working across different art forms, respond to two questions: where does the creative idea start and how is it realised? Those interviewed include David Adjaye, Devendra Banhart, Thomas Demand, Liz Diller, William Eggleston, Jacques Herzog, Mike Kelley, Lucky Dragons, James Murphy, Philippe Parreno, Richard Phillips, Jack Pierson, Stephen Shore, Paolo Soleri, Tilda Swinton, Ryan Trecartin and Jack White.

Tate Liverpool:

photos © Adrian Welch

The Pavilion will be located in Mermaid Court, adjacent to the largest single grouping of Grade 1 listed buildings anywhere in England. At 14.2 metres in diameter, with a sloping roof that ranges from 2.8m to 4.8m in height, the pavilion will provide an immersive experience during the day, with a night-time presence created through the projection of Aitken¹s work on the outer walls of the circular structure.

Built from a wooden frame and a combination of corrugated acrylic and bitumen panels, the pavilion will be a temporary structure that deliberately separates Aitken¹s work from the traditional gallery space in order to create a new cultural destination.

Stills from Sky Arts Ignition Series: Doug Aitken

British architect Sir David Adjaye:

photo courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop and 303 Gallery, NY

Jacques Herzog:

photo courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop and 303 Gallery, NY

Liz Diller:

photo courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop and 303 Gallery, NY

Paolo Soleri:

photo courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop and 303 Gallery, NY

The Sky Arts Ignition Series was launched in 2011 to support the creation of major new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent. Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken The Source is the first project in the series, which will see Sky Arts collaborate with six leading arts organisations from across the UK and Ireland in the creation of brand new works. For each of the chosen projects, Sky Arts will provide a cash investment of up to £200,000 and work with the arts partners to bring their projects to a wider audience, using Sky’s platform.

Tate Liverpool:

photos © Adrian Welch

Doug Aitken said: ³This project is about the roots of creativity. Many of the people in this project are working in very diverse mediums and it’s that common thread that I¹m interested in. The project is very much about the empowerment of the viewer. I want the installation at Tate Liverpool to be a destination: a place that one can go to and walk into this field of ideas. It will be a celebration of the power of the individual and the forging of a borderless new creative territory I¹m incredibly excited.”

James Hunt, Director of Sky Arts, commented, ‘At Sky Arts, it¹s clear to us just how fascinated people are by the creative process that goes into making works of art. Doug¹s plan for the first Sky Arts Ignition project really captures that; opening up the creative process and making it more relatable and accessible. That¹s another thing that we try to do at Sky Arts, and Doug’s project fits with that ethos perfectly.’

Tate Liverpool + Albert Dock

Sky Arts Ignition: Doug Aitken The Source
15 Sep – 13 Jan 2013
Free admission
Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4BB

For more information on the Sky Arts Ignition Series, please visit the website at sky.com/skyartsignition

28 Jul 2012

US Library Buildings

Two New Washington DC Libraries
The William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Library and the The Francis Gregory Library now open.

18 Apr 2012

David Adjaye Book

David Adjaye – Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture

Edited by Marc McQuade
With contributions by David Adjaye, Stan Allen, Alex Coles, Teresita Fernández, Dave Hickey, Sanford Kwinter, Jorge Pardo, and Matthew Ritchie

Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between art and architecture. From 2008 through 2010, David Adjaye and 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 explore the shared space of art and architecture.

Storefront for Art and Architecture

National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC, USA
Design: Freelon Adjaye Bond Smith Group

picture courtesy Freelon Adjaye Bond Smith Group
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum for African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) broke ground on 22 Feb 2012. President Obama delivered remarks at an official ceremony celebrating this milestone for the Smithsonian Institution’s new museum on Washington’s National Mall.

Adjaye/Associates Studio News

Adjaye Associates Relocates

Adjaye Associates’ London Headquarters moves from N1 to NW1

After more than a decade in Penn Street Hackney, Adjaye Associates’ London studio has moved into the recently redeveloped Art Deco Edison House on Old Marlebone Road. Occupying the entire ground floor, the office is a radical new space planned and designed by the practice.

Strengthening Adjaye Associates’ London base, the move celebrates the studio’s longstanding enthusiasm for working locally – both in London and across the UK. Edison House is a freshly completed development with striking office space that will champion the London headquarters, while consolidating the practice’s international presence, with its partner offices in Berlin and New York.

David Adjaye said:
“I have a real passion for working in my home town – London is the city which has established my career and given me extraordinary opportunities. To set up my office in one of our own developments is extremely exciting. It is a moment which heralds renewed enthusiasm for building here and we will seek to strengthen our local base with ever more projects. It is also gratifying to be able to provide my excellent team with a distinctive, exciting environment in which to work.”

Adjaye Associates, Edison House, 223-231 Old Marylebone Road, London NW1 5TH

David Adjaye : ‘Urban Africa’

photograph : David Adjaye
David Adjaye Exhibition London at the Design Museum – Photos by David

Major Buildings by Adjaye/Associates

Kvadrat London Showroom, London, UK
2009
Design: David Adjaye and Peter Saville

photo from Adjaye / Associates
Kvadrat London Showroom

Idea Store Chrisp St, Langdon Park, Poplar, east London, UK

photo © Nick Weall
Idea Store Chrisp St

Idea Store Whitechapel, east London, UK

photo © Nick Weall
Idea Store Whitechapel

Rivington Place, London, UK
2007

photo © Nick Weall
Rivington Place

Buildings by Adjaye/Associates

Projects listed alphabetically:

Bernie Grant Centre, Tottenham, east London
2007

Dirty House, Shoreditch, east London, UK
2001-02

Elektra House, Whitechapel, east London, UK
1998-2000

Idea Store, Chrisp Street, Poplar, east London, UK
2001-04

inVIA – Institute of International Visual Arts, London
2007

Manchester gallery project, northern England
2007-
Design: David Adjaye with Maurice Shapero + Stephenson Bell
£55m: Apartments, gallery, retail, market, bus station

Museum of Contemporary Arts, Denver, USA
2007

Nobel Peace Center – Exhibition Centre, Oslo, Norway
2002-05

Stephen Lawrence Centre, Deptford, southeast London
2007

T-B A21 Olafur Eliasson Pavilion – Art Installation, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2005

Timber-frame prefabricated house, de Beauvoir Town, Hackney, east London
2007

More projects by David Adjaye online soon

Adjaye/Associates nominated in Stirling Prize 2006 – for Idea Store
Client: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Location: Old Marylebone Road, London NW1 5TH, England, UK

British Architecture Practice Information

Architect studio based in London, UK

David Adjaye

Born 1966: Dar-Es-Salam, Tanzania, east Africa

London Architects

Education
Royal College of Art – MA Arch 1993

David Adjaye reformed his studio in 2000 as Adjaye/Associates

Teaching Positions
Architectural Association, London : unit tutor

Previously
Royal College of Art, London : lecturer

Awards
RIBA First Prize Bronze Medal : 1993

David has become well-known for his intriguing houses which are innovative especially in materials and colour, and for The Idea Store building typology which is both a library and education centre.

Further Information

David Adjaye is founder and Principal Architect of Adjaye Associates. Established in June 2000, the firm has received worldwide attention, with work ranging in scale from private houses, cafes and bars, exhibitions and temporary pavilions to major arts centres, civic buildings and masterplans in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The architecture practice is currently engaged on the prestigious commission to design the Smithsonian Institution’s ambitious National Museum of African American History and Culture on a prominent site on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Adjaye’s belief in working together with artists and other cultural thinkers has led to a number of notable collaborations on both building projects as well as exhibitions.

The architects practice established its early reputation with a series of private houses where the artist was client, and this dialogue continues with recent public buildings, exhibitions and research projects, including Chris Offili’s “The Upper Room” exhibited (1999-2002 and 2010), which is now in the permanent collection of Tate Britain. David Adjaye’s photographic survey of 52 cities across the continent of Africa, “Urban Africa”, exhibited at the Design Museum London (2010), has shifted the understanding of Africa’s metropolitan centres while offering a global resonance and consolidating the African heritage that informs the practice’s work. He was awarded the OBE for services to architecture in 2007 and received the Design Miami/ Year of the Artist title in 2011.

Sir David Adjaye KCVO OBE

Sir David Adjaye KCVO OBE

11th January 2017 – Sir David Adjaye KCVO OBE is one of the world’s most recognisable and influential architects. Born in Tanzania, where his father was a Ghanaian diplomat, he decided on his future career at an early age. “I just wanted to do architecture because I loved it,” he has said. “Nobody was going to stop me.” He studied architecture at London South Bank University (LSBU), before training with David Chipperfield and Eduardo Souto De Moura. In 1994 he started his own architecture practice at the age of just 28.

Since then, David has made his mark all over the world. In his hometown of London, he has designed a series of dramatically beautiful private homes and worked with Tower Hamlets Council on Idea Stores in Poplar and Whitechapel. He designed the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, which aims to encourage disadvantaged young people to pursue careers in architecture and urban design.

Further afield, high-profile projects include the Moscow School of Management in Russia, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History in Washington DC, USA, the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, USA, and the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway. While critics swoon over his ingenious use of materials and apparent ability to ‘sculpt’ light, he claims not to have a signature style. “What’s the point of building if you’re just doing the same thing over and over again?” he has said. “That would kill me.”

He has also worked closely with artists, including Chris Ofili and Olafur Eliasson. In 2010, the Design Museum put on an exhibition of his own photographs showing the architecture of Africa’s capital cities. “I wanted to show the everyday experience of going to school, to court, to parliament, especially to young African kids who might not have been back to the continent,” he says. “Of course, Africa is about great architecture too and that’s something we should be proud of.”

David’s glittering portfolio and high public profile have put him in demand as a teacher and presenter, and he is currently visiting professor at Princeton School of Architecture, USA. He is the co-presenter of the BBC’s Dreamspaces, and has interviewed seminal Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer for BBC radio. He has also presented a BBC documentary, Building Africa: The Architecture of a Continent.

In 2007, he was awarded an OBE for services to architecture. In 2017 he was awarded Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.

source: www.lsbu.ac.uk/about-us/news/david-adjaye-alumni-new-year-honours-2017