MBIArch 2010-11 Faculty: David Adjaye

David Adjaye was born in Tanzania in 1966. He pursued his studies in London, and obtained an architecture degree from the Royal College of Art in 1993. Adjaye worked for David Chipperfield Architects and Eduardo Souto de Moura in the 1990s, and then partnered with William Russell until he founded Adjaye Associates in 2000.

David Adjaye in the first meeting of the BIArch Advisory Council

In the office’s early years, Adjaye made a name for himself with his relatively small, elegant residential and bar/café projects in London’s still-gritty East End. Today, Adjaye Associates has offices in London, Berlin and New York and large commissions like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, D.C.

Regardless of scale, Adjaye’s approach to design is usually austere and balanced, more focused on plays of material textures and light than formal or structural acrobatics. Adjaye has demonstrated a particular passion for projects with a social bent, such as the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, the Whitechapel Idea Store, or the Stephen Lawrence Center. These projects run along the fine line between private and public, between openness and intimacy, and they push the definition of public space in a way that feels closer and more contemporary, even though these distinctions remain tense or uncertain at times. Adjaye is convinced that architecture is most relevant when it has a social purpose.

The Dirty House, London

Nobel Peace Center, Oslo

The Idea Store, Whitechapel

Most recently, David Adjaye is building the new Moscow School of Management, developing the African American History and Culture Museum project and has been shortlisted for the SFMOMA extension. He has also put together an intriguing exhibition at the Design Museum in London, with photos from his travels and views on “Urban Africa“.

“Sclera” Pavilion, London Design Festival, 2008

Skolkovo School of Management, Moscow

Design concept for the  National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC

Photo from Adjaye’s “Urban Africa” Show, currently at the Design Museum London

In the frame of BIArch and the MBIArch program, Adjaye will deliver a second-semester Architectural Design Seminar, most likely delving into the themes that he considers important: redefining architectural typologies in a way that projects might engage with the public, become socially relevant and respond adequately to the challenges of urban change.

*Photos by David Farran, Adjaye Associates and Flickr users Dave Gorman, Arnout Fonck, suburbanslice, Dan’s Photos.