The Alchemy of David Adjaye’s Architecture
The Ghanaian British architect, whose new book by Spencer Bailey is out this week, talks about his ongoing investigations into materials and form.
June 29, 2023
32 minute read
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Ever since the Ghanaian British architect David Adjaye and I first met, in 2011, in large part because of our many intersecting interests, we have forged what I consider to be my longest-running interview: a kaleidoscopic series of conversations, probably numbering around 30 or so and spanning 12 years, about life and death, cities, architecture, landscape, art, light and shadow, the built environment, “luxury,” nature, culture, memory and memorials, Japan (particularly Kyoto and the Katsura Imperial Villa), Isamu Noguchi, racial politics, Blackness, the African diaspora, slavery, colonialism, trauma, the climate crisis, and so much else. Extending out of this dialogue, David wrote a beautiful foreword to my book In Memory Of: Designing Contemporary Memorials (Phaidon, 2020).
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