David Adjaye

Background

Sir David Adjaye OM OBE is a Ghanaian-British architect, born in 1966 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His father Affram was a diplomat, and the family's postings took them to Kampala, Nairobi, Cairo, Beirut, Accra and Jeddah. He studied at South Bank, spent time in Portugal with Eduardo Souto de Moura, and travelled in Japan, where he followed Japanese Buddhism courses at the University of Kyoto. He founded Adjaye Associates in 2000.

Signature Style

Adjaye is known for an ingenious use of materials, bespoke designs and an artistic sensibility paired with community-driven projects. The firm's output covers houses, bespoke furniture collections, product design, exhibitions, pavilions, arts centers, civic buildings and master plans. For him, architecture is "a social act".

Notable Works

• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, Washington DC, opened on the National Mall in 2016
• Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, completed in 2007, his first project in the US
• Ideas Stores, two public libraries in London
• Adjaye Africa Architecture: A Photographic Survey of Metropolitan Architecture, a ten-year documentation of fifty-four African cities
• Double Zero chair and stool for Moroso, 2015

Legacy

He was knighted in 2017, named among TIME's 100 most influential people that year, received the 2021 RIBA Royal Gold Medal and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2022. Adjaye Associates now works from studios in Accra, London and New York.