David Adjaye is one of the world’s most celebrated architects.
His firm, Adjaye Associates, has completed more than 70 projects around the world ranging from galleries
and shopping malls, to vast university buildings, museums and skyscrapers.
In 2017, he was knighted for his services to architecture and described as "one of the
leading architects of his generation; a global and cultural ambassador for the UK.”
Here, we look at his five most impressive projects to date.
First up is one of Adjaye's most revered projects in Beirut.
Completed in 2015, this striking building located on the city's waterfront contains
377,000 square feet - or 35,000 square metres - of retail and gallery spaces.
The project features a richly patterned screening facade made from aluminium tubing.
Initially intended to be made from ceramics, the first shipment of the tiles was damaged before it
could reach the building and the material specification was changed.
Thankfully, the completed structure is still striking, and the same pattern - in steel and marble
can be found in the mall's futuristic interior.
Next, we are off to Skolkovo, the Russian equivalent of Silicon Valley,
located about 20 kilometres outside of central Moscow,
where Adjaye Associates completed the USD $360M Moscow School of Management in 2010.
In order to create a viable student community in the country's famously harsh winters,
Adjaye decided against a campus arrangement
and instead integrated all of the school's facilities within a single building.
The structure's 150 metre-wide circular base contains classrooms, lecture halls and other
teaching facilities, while the four dramatically cantilevering blocks above house administration,
a health centre, hotel and student accommodation.
In third place is the Francis A. Gregory Neighbourhood Library in Washington DC completed in 2012.
With an area of 23,000 square feet - around 2,100 square metres - and with a budget of USD $13M,
the project demonstrates Adjaye Associates abilities to deliver smaller schemes in relative terms.
Here, Adjaye used his experience designing libraries in London,
creating an open, inviting space for the local community.
Patterns once again dominate the building's facade, with the timber lattice creating a
distinct identity, whilst helping to reduce on glare on occupants.
The building’s canopy and surrounding vegetation keep out the summer sun, while allowing maximum
solar exposure in the winter - a feature that earned this project a LEED Silver certification.
Number two brings us to London's Shoreditch, where David Adjaye completed this robust,
RIBA-Award winning arts centre in 2007.
When it opened, this 15,500 square foot (1,445 square metre) complex
was the first publicly funded, newly-built, gallery in London for 40 years.
The building's exterior consists of eight rows of windows set within a progressively
smaller checkerboard of black concrete panels, but the building actually has just five floors.
Inside, it features spaces dedicated to visual art, alongside studios and an auditorium.
Easily taking our top spot is The National Museum of African American History and Culture
on the National Mall in Washington DC.
Adjaye Associates, together with Freelon and Bond/Smith Group
won a competition to design the structure in 2009.
Built over a period of four years starting in 2012, the NMAAHC is the National Mall's
deepest museum, with excavations extending some 80 feet (14 metres) below grade
to create the building's foundations.
The building’s exterior resembles three upturned stacked volumes, which are clad in 3,600 bronze-coloured
cast-aluminium screen-like panels whose pattern was inspired by African American craftsmanship.
A hugely symbolic project, the 420,000 square foot museum cost USD $540M to complete and
was opened by President Obama in September 2016.
By architecture’s standards, Sir David Adjaye, currently 51 years old, is still a young man.
With a string of new commissions, such as the National Cathedral of Ghana,
a 66-storey concrete skyscraper at 130 William Street in New York
and the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art in Riga,
we're sure this list will look quite different in 5 years' time.
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