Adjaye in the UK

Opening today at the Design Museum, David Adjaye: Making Memory exhibits seven projects by the British-Ghanaian architect showing how buildings can express identity, culture and contemporary politics. To coincide with the most anticipated show this spring, we’re taking you on a whistle-stop tour of Adjaye’s London projects that you can see for yourself around the city, and we’ll hear from the people that inhabit them.

We’re big Adjaye fans. Whether it’s the carving of Yoruba artist Olowe of Ise in his pagoda-like National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC or Harlem’s idiosyncratic stoops in his designs for the Studio Museum in New York, his buildings are full of historical reference to past cultures. Although we’re celebrating his London work here, he is truly a global architect, with increasingly political work like the Gwangju River Reading Room and its 200 books about social justice or the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory due to be built on the Isle of Portland. His much-thumbed tome Adjaye · Africa · Architecture opened our eyes to African architecture.

We’re fortunate to overlook an intriguing residential project of his across the road from us in De Beauvoir (more on that below). Discover more David Adjaye gems that might be on your doorstep in London…

Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Tottenham

Built in 2007, this community centre is a hotspot for comedy, dance and theatre in Tottenham. It was built to continue the legacy of its namesake Bernie Grant, the UK’s first black MP and a great supporter of musical and artistic talent in the area. As well as a cinema that shows arthouse films and docs on comfy nana-style armchairs, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre is packed full of workspaces and rehearsal rooms – some with incredible floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Tottenham Green. The cafe was recently given a vibrant makeover by Morag Myerscough (complete with Iroko wood to match the building's existing panelling) and serves a Caribbean menu made from local and responsibly sourced produce. Also, the veg curry gets a gold star from us.

Sunken House, De Beauvoir

From Zetteler’s third-floor HQ in De Beauvoir we overlook one of David Adjaye’s finest residential projects and sometimes its owner, photographer Ed Reeve, gives us a wave back. Sunken House or ‘Ed’s Shed’ as its fondly called, was designed by Adjaye in 2007 and gets its name from how the black cube is stealthily submerged to make for higher ceilings. Ed, who lives and works in the space, told us that the building has adapted well to his growing family. ‘I spent a lot of time living in the building in my head long before it was built,’ Ed tells us. ‘I was single at the time so I pictured the routines of my usual day but also future scenarios such as having children. The house has fulfilled its potential just as I imagined it would. It works extremely well at making our life simple, even in the smallest things that we do everyday, and that gives us great enjoyment and satisfaction.'

Ed’s favourite spot is the living room’s panoramic window. ‘The view from it is to the west so it captures the setting sun, it’s the reason I fell in love with the land,’ he tells us. ‘The warm rays filter through the branches of the oak tree which fills the room with animated dappled light. It’s a really wonderful space to be in at that time.’ Now we don’t suggest you hang around outside Ed’s house (that would be weird) but if you’re looking for an unusual filming location, Ed considers requests.

Stephen Lawrence Centre, Lewisham

Opened in 2007 in memory of murdered architecture student Stephen Lawrence, this community hub was opened as a space to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds aged 13-30 to achieve their potential. The client, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, undertakes important work helping more than 2000 young people through training, mentoring, bursaries and other activities. One of the most striking elements of Adjaye’s design is the facade, based on a drawing by Chris Ofili. As light passes through the design, it casts patterned shadows throughout the lobby. Last year its interior received a makeover from Gensler, modernising part of the centre into a low-cost co-working hub for local start-ups and businesses.

Rivington Place, Shoreditch

This Shoreditch development, built in 2007, contains one of our all time favourite galleries in London, Autograph ABP, which consistently shifts our perspective on identity, representation, human rights and social justice. It was set up to champion photographers from marginalised groups that were being ignored by mainstream galleries. Also the HQ of the Institute of International Visual Art (Iniva), the building’s unusual facade provides rooms with windows at two levels, one showing the surrounding buildings and another the sky. Adjaye designed an epic three-storey atrium for Autograph, which feels incredibly dramatic when you step in from the narrow Shoreditch streets and packs a punch when filled with large works, as in a recent show of Zanele Muholi’s politically charged self-portraits.

Rough Trade, Shoreditch

After a pilgrimage to Autograph ABP, pop round the corner to another East London institution, record shop Rough Trade. David Adjaye, explains Rough Trade co-owner Stephen Godfroy, had been a loyal customer for years so was an ideal choice when they wanted to open ‘a communal hub where likeminded thinkers could congregate under one roof to celebrate the kaleidoscopic wonder of creative self-expression,’ says Stephen. But the project wasn’t without challenge.

Built in 2007, Rough Trade was the largest new independent record store in Europe at a time when mainstream media had written off the record store as an irrelevant bygone in the era of downloads, plus there was a shoestring budget. ‘For me, David’s signature mark of genius on the store is the fluorescent lighting array that ‘explodes’ across the store’s high, elongated ceiling,’ says Stephen. ‘David took what is typically overlooked as simply a utilitarian requirement of most interior spaces and recalibrated it into a work of art – a single, functional element that impacts the entire space, that lures outsiders to come in, that provides guardianship once inside. It’s just a configuration of lighting but it’s so dramatic, so simple, so effective, it brings a smile to my face every time I walk in, however many thousands of times that’s been now.’ Stephen adds, ‘For me, at its essence, David’s work offers transcendence, allowing those present in his spaces to rise above the everyday, the mundanity, to reconsider that immediate moment in time with new perspective. In that sense, there’s a profound sense of physical spirituality about David’s work, a timeless dimension, a mark of genius.’

The Social, Fitzrovia

Tucked behind an unassuming doorway just north of Oxford Street, this is an Adjaye project to escape to at the end of your tour. Designed all the way back in 1999, The Social consists of two cosy rooms one at street level and one buried below. The top bar is lined with wood panelling and low lighting, and has a speakeasy vibe with a good helping of Twin Peaks. The dramatic setting makes it popular for bands and talks. Check out publisher Faber & Faber’s events programme Faber Social if you want some intellectual stimulation with your aesthetic appreciation.