A collection of nine contemporary houses designed by one of the most influential and exciting architects of his generation

David Adjaye’s award-winning buildings and urban schemes have met with critical and popular acclaim around the world. Born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents, David Adjaye enjoyed a wide-ranging education and opened his first office in London in 1994, making his name with a series of innovative houses for artists and creatives.

After twenty years of practice, houses now represent a smaller portion of Adjaye’s work but continue to play a significant role in his output and development as an architect. Here, nine outstanding examples in diverse settings on four continents – from a Victorian suburb in London, to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a country park outside Nanjing, and a coastal landscape in Ghana – are presented in vivid detail. Each project engages sensitively with its location, pushes the boundaries of spatial invention and challenges received concepts of domestic space in the twenty-first century.

Adjaye’s artistry, his graceful compositions and unexpected materials, are explored in richly detailed photographs and drawings, which celebrate an architect at the height of his creative powers.

Contents List:

Foreword: David Adjaye : Living Spaces • Pitch Black, New York, USA, 2003–2006 • Sunken House, London, UK, 2003–2007 • LN House, Denver, USA, 2005–2007 • Silverlight, London, UK, 2002–2009 • Seven, New York, USA, 2004–2010 • Asem Pa, Make It Right, New Orleans, USA, 2007–2011 • Nanjing House, Nanjing, China, 2004–2012 • Nkron, Ghana, 2008–2012 • Hill House, Trinidad, 2008–2014

About the Author:

Peter Allison is professor of architecture at South Bank University. He is the author of several books published by Thames & Hudson.

The second volume in Thames & Hudson’s monographic series on global architect Sir David Adjaye, winner of the 2021 RIBA royal gold medal

Following on from Adjaye – Works: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings, 1995–2007, published by Thames & Hudson in 2020, this book covers the impressive portfolio of work created by the architect between 2007 and 2015. During the years covered in this book, David Adjaye became interested in developing an architecture that was more expansive, taking him outside Europe to work on major projects such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo. Designing buildings around the globe, including two projects connected with the post-Katrina reconstruction programme in New Orleans, Adjaye carefully tailored his approach to each place, sensitive to the important role architecture plays in affirming a sense of community and identity.

Contents List:

Foreword by Sir David Adjaye

The Modern made Flesh by Ila Berman

Projects
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, USA, 2004-7
LN House, Denver, USA, 2005-7
Wakefield Market, Wakefield, UK, 2005-8
Montauk House & Pavilion, Montauk, USA, 2007-8
Sclera, London, UK, 2008
Silverlight, London, UK, 2002-9
Kvadrat, London, UK, 2007-9
Specere, Kielder Water and Forest Park, UK, 2009
Swarovski Sankalpa, Wattens, Austria, 2009
Seven, New York, USA, 2004-10
Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, Moscow, Russia, 2006-10
The Dissolve, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, USA, 2008-10
GEO-graphics: A Map of Art Practices, in Africa, Past & Present, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium, 2010
Art at Work: An Itinerant Urban Platform, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2010-11
The Edison, London, UK, 2009-11
American Prayer, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France, 2010-11
Genesis, Miami, USA, 2011
Turning the Seventh Corner, Berlin, Germany, 2011
Nanjing House, Nanjing, China, 2004-12
Asem Pa, Make It Right, New Orleans, USA, 2007-12
Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC, USA, 2008-12
William O. Lockridge Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC, USA, 2008-12
Nkron, Ghana, 2008-12
Richard Avedon, Murals and Portraits, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA, 2011-12
Ephemeropterae, Vienna, Austria, 2012
The Source, Liverpool, UK, 2012
Case Study Housing, Hamburg, Germany, 2010-13
Liminal Squared, White Cube, London, UK, 2012-13
Proenza Schouler, New York, USA, 2013
River Reading Room, Gwangju, South Korea, 2013
Piety Bridge and Wharf, New Orleans, USA, 2008-13
Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Hutchins Center, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2012-14
Roksanda Ilincic, London, UK, 2013-14
Mariam Goodman Gallery, London, UK, 2014
Sugar Hill, New York, USA, 2009-15

Works
Biography
Credits

About the Author:

Peter Allison is a London-based exhibition curator and teacher. He is the author of many books, including the companion book to this title, David Adjaye – Works: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings, 1995-2007.

The collected early works of Sir David Adjaye, winner of the 2021 RIBA royal gold medal

David Adjaye, the son of a Tanzanian diplomat, spent his childhood moving between international cities before settling in London, where he was educated. Fresh out of the Royal Academy of Art, his early commissions reflected an influential generation of artists at the turn of the millennium with whom he shared a range of sensibilities. His artistic sensitivity, deft use of space and inexpensive, unexpected materials resulted in a number of iconic projects.

With the hindsight of almost twenty years of practice and a raft of high-profile projects around the world – perhaps best symbolized by his National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. – the significance of Adjaye’s earlier projects is clear. Never shying away from a challenge, Adjaye used his first projects as testbeds for what would become his unique, acclaimed and highly sought-after brand of ‘critical regionalism’.

This monograph presents the first projects of Adjaye’s corpus, many little documented. From London’s West End to Brooklyn, clever urban interventions and pavilions to private houses for artists and public buildings for the many. These early projects, brought together and presented with new analyses and recently uncovered archival material, testify to the originality of an architect at the height of his talents who is changing the face of our built world.

About the Author:

Peter Allison is a London-based exhibition curator and teacher.