David Adjaye: Making Memory, the Design Museum

‘Everyone wants an Adjaye building now.’ It may sound like an exaggeration, but this design critic isn’t far off the truth. British Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye OBE – knighted last year – has made his architectural mark across the world. The Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo is an Adjaye building; celebrities including Ewan McGregor and Alexander McQueen have commissioned Adjaye to build their homes; and last year Adjaye won the design competition for London’s new Holocaust memorial. The National Museum of African American History was named Design of the Year 2017, forming a glittering golden crown against a backdrop of white stone mausolea on National Mall in Washington DC. The list goes on.
 

Now the Design Museum, too, is getting its fair share of the award-winning architect’s work in a – quite literally – monumental exhibition. David Adjaye: Making Memoryexplores how Adjaye uses architecture and form as storytelling devices: throughout human history, monuments have been erected to mark who we are and what we have done, memorialising triumphs and failures alike. The use of monuments is constantly changing, and Making Memory illustrates through seven of Ajaye’s landmark structures how buildings can shape our perception of events from a contemporary perspective.

Making Memory casts a new light on Adjaye’s world-famous projects, and promises sneak-peeks at ongoing ones.