A little more than a decade ago, David Adjaye hovered on the verge of bankruptcy, his budding architectural practice devastated by the Great Recession. “Budgets were slashed. I was employing about 30 people and had about six decent projects, which was a lot for a young architect. But I was winging it. I wasn’t a business person. I lost all my savings, going through the insolvency system and paying off everyone personally.”
It was a rough comedown for an architect whose early works had gained notice for their rigorous and subversive designs. But only a year later, in 2009, Adjaye won the heated competition to design the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, marking a stunning reversal of his fortunes. “Just when people thought that I was done with, the Smithsonian revived me and introduced me to America. It felt supernatural.”
As well as being a personal redemption, the museum, which opened in 2016, won the Ghanaian British designer several awards and catapulted him into the starchitect stratosphere. The following year, thanks to a knighthood, he added Sir to his name. Adjaye has become a go-to man for monuments and museums, including a planned Holocaust memorial by the Houses of Parliament in London. He has also become something of a spokesman for black architects, a role he inhabits eloquently, though reluctantly.
Esta historia es de la edición February 2021 de Robb Report Singapore.
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Esta historia es de la edición February 2021 de Robb Report Singapore.
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