The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is pleased to announce that Sir David Adjaye will receive the 2021 Royal Gold Medal, one of the world’s highest honours for architecture.
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'.
Sir David Adjaye has achieved international attention for an exceptional body of work over 25 years. Drawing on his cited influences including ‘contemporary art, music and science to African art forms and the civic life of cities’, his completed projects range from private houses, exhibitions and furniture design, through to major cultural buildings and city masterplans. From the start of his career he has combined practice with teaching in schools of architecture in the UK and the USA, including professorships at the universities of Harvard, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Princeton.
His practice, Adjaye Associates, was founded in 2000 and today has studios in Accra, London and New York, with projects across the world.
Adjaye Associates are most well-known for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, DC (2016), where they were lead designer of the Freelon Adjaye/Bond SmithGroup. Other completed projects include Ruby City, an art centre in San Antonio, Texas (2019); the Alara Concept Store in Lagos (2016); the Sugar Hill Mixed Use Development (housing, museum, community facilities and offices) in Harlem, New York (2015); the Aishti Foundation, a mixed use retail and arts centre in Beirut, Lebanon (2015); two neighbourhood libraries in Washington, DC (both 2012); the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo in Russia (2010); the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado (2007); the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway (2005); Rivington Place arts centre in Hackney, London (2007); and the Idea Stores – two community libraries in London (2004, 2005).
Current projects include a new home for The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York in collaboration with Cooper Robertson; 130 William, a high-rise residential tower in New York’s financial district; the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Dakar, Senegal; the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey in collaboration with Cooper Robertson; the George Street Sydney Plaza in Sydney, Australia; The Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi; Winter Park Library and Events Center in Winter Park, Florida; the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, London led by Adjaye Associates, with Ron Arad Architects as Memorial Architect, and Gustafson Porter + Bowman as Landscape Architect; the Royal Benin Museum in Benin City, Nigeria; the National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra; and the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in Johannesburg, South Africa.
On hearing the news that he will receive the Royal Gold Medal in 2021, Sir David Adjaye said:
“It’s incredibly humbling and a great honour to have my peers recognise the work I have developed with my team and its contribution to the field over the past 25 years. Architecture, for me, has always been about the creation of beauty to edify all peoples around the world equally and to contribute to the evolution of the craft. The social impact of this discipline has been and will continue to be the guiding force in the experimentation that informs my practice. A heartfelt and sincere moment of gratitude and thanks to all the people who supported the journey to get to this moment.”
RIBA President Alan Jones said:
“It was my absolute pleasure and honour to chair the committee and be involved in selecting Sir David Adjaye as the 2021 Royal Gold Medallist.
At every scale, from private homes to major arts centres, one senses David Adjaye’s careful consideration of the creative and enriching power of architecture. His work is local and specific and at the same time global and inclusive. Blending history, art and science he creates highly crafted and engaging environments that balance contrasting themes and inspire us all. I believe his both practising and teaching in schools of architecture has significantly enriched his work. His artistic and social vision has created public projects that perfectly demonstrate the civic potential of architecture – fostering empathy, identity and pride.
David’s contribution to architecture and design globally is already astounding, and I am excited that we have so much more of it to look forward to.”
Sir David Adjaye was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to architecture, following an OBE in 2007. As a student, he won the 1993 RIBA Bronze Medal for the best design project worldwide; in 2006 his Idea Store Whitechapel was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year. He has won RIBA International Awards for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2008) and the Francis Gregory Library and William. O Lockridge/Bellevue Library in Washington DC (both 2013).
The 2021 Royal Gold Medal selection committee, chaired by RIBA President Alan Jones, comprised: architects Lesley Lokko, Dorte Mandrup and last year’s Royal Gold Medal recipient Shelley McNamara and structural engineer Professor Hanif Kara.
Citation on Sir David Adjaye by the 2021 RIBA Honours Committee:
Through his work as an architect Sir David Adjaye speaks confidently across cultures, disciplines, politics and continents. His body of work is global and local, finely attuned as it reflects and responds to context and community, climate and culture.
The lessons Adjaye learned through his initial series of conceptual and sensuous dwellings set boldly against and within the shifting landscape of central London have been disassembled and reconfigured as he has realised wider, civic public and social spaces of cities across the world. Listening to clients and users and often working with artists, Adjaye’s work is contradictory and yet coherent, contrasting and courageous, setting up and balancing elegance and grit, weightlessness and weight, dark and light.
Adjaye has combined practice and teaching in schools of architecture around the world and championed civic representation through public discourse. He is dedicated to communicating and creating architecture that is both personal and inspired by culture and the stories of people’s lives, realising places that offer new layers of empathy, experience and engagement.
His work reveals a core belief in the generative power of architecture. In a world that has become polarised he brings politics, art and science together with architecture, as he works to create a better future. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC united his many architectural and cultural agendas and expressed the role architecture can play in pluralism.
Adjaye is a singular and timely talent and a strong reminder of the insightful and integrative role of the architect.
Related Stories
| Jun 13, 2013
Winfrey hired as Health and S&T studio head for SmithGroupJJR Dallas
SmithGroupJJR, one of the nation’s largest architecture, engineering and planning firms, has hired David Winfrey, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, as leader of its Health and Science & Technology Studio at its Dallas, Texas office.
| Jun 13, 2013
WorkingBuildings acquires Specialty Operations Solutions
The WorkingBuildings Companies, a leading provider of comprehensive Owner-based solutions for the built environment, announces the acquisition of Specialty Operations Solutions (SOS), a national provider of research and laboratory services.
| Jun 13, 2013
Health Product Declaration Collaborative names Knott as Executive Director
John L. Knott Jr. has been named as the Health Product Declaration Collaborative’s (www.hpdcollaborative.org) first Executive Director following a national search. The Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC) is a customer-led standards-setting organization committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry’s environmental and health performance, through transparency and innovation in the building product supply chain.
| Jun 13, 2013
AIA partners with industry groups to launch $30,000 'Designing Recovery' design competition
The program will award a total of $30,000 to three winning designs, divided equally between three locations: Joplin, Mo., New Orleans, and New York.
| Jun 12, 2013
More than 90% of New York City schools have code violations
More than 90% of New York City schools have at least one outstanding building code violation. Loose wires, stuck doors and inadequate ventilation are just some of the problems.
| Jun 12, 2013
5 building projects that put the 'team' in teamwork
The winners of the 2013 Building Team Awards show that great buildings cannot be built without the successful collaboration of the Building Team.
| Jun 12, 2013
Sacred synergy achieves goals for religious education [2013 Building Team Award winner]
A renovation/addition project at Columbia Theological Seminary unites a historic residence hall with a modern classroom facility.
| Jun 12, 2013
‘Talking’ Braille maps help the visual impaired
Talking pen technology, combined with tactile maps, allows blind people to more easily make their way around BART stations in the Bay Area.
| Jun 11, 2013
Music/dance building supports sweet harmony [2013 Building Team Award winner]
A LEED Gold project enhances a busy Chicago neighborhood, meeting ambitious criteria for acoustical design and adaptability.
| Jun 11, 2013
Vertical urban campus fills a tall order [2013 Building Team Award winner]
Roosevelt University builds a 32-story tower to satisfy students’ needs for housing, instruction, and recreation.