David Adjaye
*David Adjaye was born on this date in 1966. He is a Black Ghanaian-British architect.
Sir David Frank Adjaye was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The son of a Ghanaian diplomat, he moved to Britain at the age of nine. Upon graduating with a B.A. in Architecture from London South Bank University in 1990, he was nominated for the RIBA President's Medal. He won the RIBA Bronze Medal for the best design project produced at the B.A. level worldwide. He graduated with an MA in 1993 from the Royal College of Art.
In 1993, the same year of graduation, Adjaye won the RIBA Bronze Medal Award, a prize offered for RIBA Part 1 projects, normally won by students who have only completed a bachelor's degree. Previously a unit tutor at the Architectural Association, he was also a lecturer at the Royal College of Art. Adjaye was the first Louis Kahn visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kenzo Tange Architecture Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition, he is a RIBA Chartered Member, an AIA Honorary Fellow, a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.
Adjaye is a member of the Advisory Council of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture. Also, He serves as a member of the Advisory Boards of the Barcelona Institute of Architecture and the LSE Cities Programme. Adjaye established his practice in 2000 as Adjaye Associates. The firm now operates globally with offices in Accra, London, and New York and has completed projects in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. In 2014, Adjaye married Ashley Shaw-Scott.
He is known for having designed many notable buildings worldwide, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. He was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honors for services to architecture, following an OBE in 2007. Adjaye is the recipient of the 2021 Royal Gold Medal. In recognition of a lifetime's work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty the Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence 'either directly or indirectly, on the advancement of architecture.
Adjaye has also worked on numerous collaborative projects with his brother Peter Adjaye, a musician. In 2018, along with Bono and Theaster Gates, Adjaye curated the third auction in Miami to support the Global Fund's work against AIDS, raising a total of $10.5 million, including matching funds by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2021 Royal Gold Medal, making him the first African recipient and one of the youngest recipients.
