Art, Design & Fashion
Landmark
David Adjaye
born 1966
Designed the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Ghana Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Born in Dar es Salaam to Ghanaian parents and raised across four countries, he built the museum of Black American history on the Washington Mall — a three-tiered bronze corona drawn from a Yoruba caryatid, standing in a row of white neoclassical stone.
David Frank Adjaye was born in 1966 in Dar es Salaam to Ghanaian parents, and grew up in Tanzania, Egypt, Yemen and Lebanon as his father's diplomatic postings moved. He studied architecture at London South Bank University and took a master's at the Royal College of Art, founding Adjaye Associates in 2000; the practice now works from Accra, London and New York.
His best-known building is the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington in 2016, whose tiered bronze-latticed corona takes its form from a Yoruba caryatid and its filigree from the ironwork made by enslaved craftsmen in Charleston and New Orleans.
He was appointed OBE, knighted in 2017, named by Time among the hundred most influential people of that year, and awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2021.
His best-known building is the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington in 2016, whose tiered bronze-latticed corona takes its form from a Yoruba caryatid and its filigree from the ironwork made by enslaved craftsmen in Charleston and New Orleans.
He was appointed OBE, knighted in 2017, named by Time among the hundred most influential people of that year, and awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2021.
- Britannica — David Adjaye
- Adjaye Associates — Sir David Adjaye OM OBE
- STIR world — Sir David Adjaye: 10 things you must know about the Ghanaian-British architect
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